System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device

ABSTRACT

A system and method of pushing user-selected data items from a host system to a user&#39;s mobile data communication device upon detecting the occurrence of one or more user-defined event triggers is provided. The user may then move (or file) the data items to a particular folder within a folder hierarchy stored in the mobile data communication device, or may execute some other system operation on the data item. Software operating at the mobile device and the host system then synchronizes the folder hierarchy of the mobile device with a folder hierarchy of the host system, and any actions executed on the data items at the mobile device are then automatically replicated on the same data items stored at the host system, thus eliminating the need for the user to manually replicate actions at the host system that have been executed at the mobile data communication device.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Utilityapplication Ser. No. 09/087,623, entitled System and Method for PushingInformation from a Host System to a Mobile Data Communication Device,filed May 29, 1998, and assigned to the assignee of the presentinvention, and U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 09/545,963 filed onApr. 10, 2000. Both of these related applications are herebyincorporated into the present application by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] The present invention is directed toward the field of replicating(or synchronizing) information folders between a host system and amobile data communication device (“mobile device”). Specifically uponreceiving this redirected information at their mobile device, the usercan then organize this data into hierarchies, commonly known as folders,and may also perform various other operations on the redirected data.These organizational and other operations are then synchronized back tothe original host system for replication. The invention also providesfor the synchronization of a storage representation model for storingthe data in a hierarchy of folders at the host system and the mobiledevice.

[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0005] Present systems and methods for replicating information from ahost system to a user's mobile data communication device are typically“synchronization” systems in which the user's data items are warehoused(or stored) at the host system for an indefinite period of time and thentransmitted in bulk only in response to a user request. In these typesof systems and methods, when replication of the warehoused data items tothe mobile device is desired, the user typically places the mobiledevice in an interface cradle that is electrically connected to the hostsystem via some form of local, dedicated communication, such as a serialcable or an infrared or other type of wireless link. Alternatively, theuser might have to perform a special ‘connection’ action every so oftenthat will synchronous all the pending items required by the user,provided they remember. Software executing on the mobile datacommunication device then transmits commands via the localcommunications link or a network link to the host system to cause thehost to begin transmitting the user's data items for storage in a memorybank of the mobile device. In these synchronization schemes, the mobileunit “pulls” the warehoused information from the host system in a batcheach time the user desires to replicate information between the twodevices. Therefore, the two systems (host and mobile) only maintain thesame data items after a user-initiated command sequence that causes themobile device to download the data items from the host system.

[0006] Another major problem with the current pull-based systems is thatthe user must deal with the information all over again once the userreturns to his office and accesses the information store at the hostsystem. This situation occurs because the average user can get hundredsof pieces of electronic information a day. This is very common in e-mailsystems where internal company mail, and external Internet mail, mergeinto one common mailbox creating a multitude of sources all merged intoone location. As a result, once the user returns to their office, eventhough they may have seen and read the mail while traveling on theirmobile device, they still have to re-read the messages and then organizethe information into folders based upon the content. This results inuser frustration, as the mobile device has not solved the problem ofsaving them time when the user returns to his office and accesses theinformation store at the host system.

[0007] A general problem with these known synchronization systems isthat the only time that the user data items are replicated between thehost system and the mobile data communication device is when the usercommands the mobile device to download or pull the user data from thehost system. Five minutes later a new message could be sent to the user,but the user would not receive that message until the next time the userfetches the user data items. Thus, a user may fail to respond to anemergency update or message because the user only periodicallysynchronizes the system, such as once per day.

[0008] Other problems with these systems include: (1) the amount of datato be reconciled between the host and the mobile device can become largeif the user does not “synchronize” on a daily or hourly basis, leadingto bandwidth difficulties, particularly when the mobile device iscommunicating via a wireless packet-switched network; (2) reconcilinglarge amounts of data, as can accrue in these batch-mode synchronizationsystems, can require a great deal of communication between the host andthe mobile device, thus leading to a more complex, costly andenergy-inefficient system; and (3) the need to deal with the informationa second time once the user returns to the office and accesses theinformation store at the host system. A more automated, continuous,efficient and reliable system of ensuring that user data items arereplicated (synchronized) at the user's mobile device is thereforeneeded.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] A system and method of pushing user-selected data items from ahost system to a user's mobile data communication device upon detectingthe occurrence of one or more user-defined event triggers is provided.The user may then move (or file) the data items to a particular folderwithin a folder hierarchy stored in the mobile data communicationdevice, or may execute some other system operation on the data item.Software operating at the mobile device and the host system thensynchronizes the folder hierarchy of the mobile device with a folderhierarchy of the host system, and any actions executed on the data itemsat the mobile device are then automatically replicated on the same dataitems stored at the host system, thus eliminating the need for the userto manually repeat the same actions at the host system that have beenexecuted at the mobile data communication device.

[0010] As used in this application, the term host system refers to thecomputer where the redirector software is operating or is associatedwith. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the hostsystem is a user's desktop PC, although, alternatively, the host systemcould be a network server connected to the user's PC via a local-areanetwork (“LAN”), or could be any other system that is in communicationwith the user's desktop PC. In a preferred embodiment, the host systemand the mobile device share a secure and private encryption key so thatall communications that are exchanged between the end points (i.e.,between the host system and the mobile device) are private.

[0011] A redirector program operating at the host system enables theuser to redirect or mirror certain user-selected data items (or parts ofdata items) from the host system to the user's mobile data communicationdevice upon detecting that one or more user-defined triggering eventshas occurred. These data items also include properties and attributeslike the data item status, its creation time and data, and informationabout where it has been placed in an information hierarchy. Once thedata items and its properties have been redirected to the user's mobiledata communication device, the user may then organize and sort the itemsinto folder hierarchies that are replicated at the host system.Additionally the the user may act upon the redirected data items, suchas by reading, organizing, replying or forwarding the data item from themobile data communication device, the host system is then informed ofthese actions and automatically reflects the changes on thecorresponding data item stored at the host system. This reconciliationprocess creates a mirrored data store between the host system and themobile device for those parts of their shared information. The term“mirrored” or “mirroring” when used in this description is meant toconvey to the reader that all, substantially all or at least all of thepertinent information of a collection of data the user desires to haveaccess to is accessible at either the mobile or host system. Due tolimited display screen sizes and other issues relating to real-estate ona limited screen on a mobile communication, it is within the scope ofone aspect of the invention to have representation of the data stored ineither the host system or mobile device stored at the mobile device orhost system, respectively, thereby still providing a “mirrored” dataenvironment without necessarily the same graphical user interface orpresentation of the mirrored data.

[0012] Another advantage of this data store mirroring is thattraditionally in data storage systems, status icons are used toassociate a state with a particular data item. A status icon is agraphical image of what state a given data item is in, i.e. read,replied to, or forwarded. The ability to affect these graphical imageswhen viewed via a computer terminal at or associated with the hostsystem from the mobile device allows the user a quick visual method ofreviewing a list of data items in a particular folder to determine theirstates. This allows the user to know what actions have been performed onthem, whether an action occurred from the mobile device, or whethernothing has been done to a given set of data items.

[0013] Operating at the host system are various sub-systems that can beconfigured to create triggering events, such as a screen saversub-system or a keyboard sub-system, as well as sub-systems forrepackaging the user's data items for transparent delivery to the mobiledata device, such as a TCP/IP subsystem or one or more E-Mailsub-systems. Other sub-systems for creating triggering events andrepackaging the user's data items could also be present at the hostsystem. The host system also includes a primary memory store where theuser's data items are normally stored with related information as towhich folder the message might have originally been placed into.

[0014] Using the redirector program, the user can select certain dataitems for redirection, such as E-mail messages, calendar events, meetingnotifications, address entries, journal entries, personal reminders,contact information, task lists, expense lists, etc. The user can alsoselect which folders get redirected to the mobile device. For example,the user may select that only data items in the Inbox and those in thecompany X folder shall be sent to the device. The user might select onlythe work-related journal folder in the journal subsystem, their personaladdress folder within the contacts sub-system, and their 9 to 5 workcalendar folder are to be redirected to their mobile device. Havingselected the data items for redirection, the user can then configure oneor more event triggers to be sensed by the redirector program toinitiate redirection of the user data items. These user-defined triggerpoints (or event triggers) include external events, internal events andnetworked events.

[0015] Examples of external events include: receiving a message from theuser's mobile data communication device to begin redirection; receivinga similar message from some external computer; sensing that the user isno longer in the vicinity of the host system; or any other event that isexternal to the host system. Internal events could be a calendar alarm,screen saver activation, keyboard timeout, programmable timer, or anyother user-defined event that is internal to the host system. Networkedevents are user-defined messages that are transmitted to the host systemfrom another computer coupled to the host system via a network toinitiate redirection. These are just some of the examples of the typesof user-defined events that can trigger the redirector program to pushdata items from the host to the mobile device.

[0016] The concept of a data items stored in a hierarchy is very wellknown in the field of computer science and in science in general.Categorization in the field of species identification has been done forhundreds of years. This same method of classification has been adoptedinto information systems so that people can deal with the large quantityof information that comes their way in a daily, weekly or yearly basis.Therefore the term folder is used to represent this categorization ofinformation into meaningful and related associations; i.e. especiallymeaningful to the person filing the information. Naturally in aprofessional or business setting you might have one or more peoplefiling the same information, i.e. a personal secretary helping a bossstay on top of the information by pre-filing the data for them.

[0017] In addition to the functionality noted above, the redirectorprogram provides a set of software-implemented control functions fordetermining the type of mobile data communication device and itsaddress, for programming a preferred list of message types or foldernames that are to be redirected, and for determining whether the mobiledevice can receive and process certain types of message attachments,such as word processor or voice attachments. The determination ofwhether a particular mobile device can receive and process attachmentsis initially configured by the user of that mobile device at the hostsystem. This configuration can then be altered on a global or permessage basis by transmitting a command message from the mobile deviceto the host system. If the redirector is configured so that the mobiledata device cannot receive and process word processor or voiceattachments, then the redirector routes these attachments to an externalmachine that is compatible with the particular attachment, such as anetworked printer or fax machine or telephone. Other types ofattachments could be redirected to other types of external machines in asimilar fashion, depending upon the capabilities of the mobile device.For example, if a user is traveling and receives a message with anattachment that the user's mobile device can process or display, theuser may from a mobile communications device send a command message tothe host system indicating that that attachment is to be sent to a faxmachine at a hotel where the user will be spending the evening. Thisenables the user to receive important E-mail attachments as long as thehost system is provided with sufficient information about thedestination where the attachment is to be forwarded.

[0018] Once an event has triggered redirection of the user data items,the host system then repackages these items in a manner that istransparent to the mobile data communication device, so that informationon the mobile device appears similar to information on the user's hostsystem. In additional to repackaging the information itself, therepackaging may also include properties about the message. This mightinclude the folder from which the message has been detected and pushedto the device. The preferred repackaging method includes wrapping theuser data items in an E-mail envelope that corresponds to the address ofthe mobile data communication device, although, alternatively, otherrepackaging methods could be used with the present invention, such asspecial-purpose TCP/IP wrapping techniques, or other methods of wrappingthe user selected data items. The repackaging preferably results inE-mail messages appearing to come from the host system even though theyare initiated at the mobile device, thus enabling the user to appear tohave a single E-mail address, such that the recipients of messages sentfrom the mobile communications device do not know where the user wasphysically located when the message was first sent. The repackaging alsopermits both messages to the mobile device and sent from the mobiledevice to be encrypted and decrypted as well as compressed anddecompressed.

[0019] In an alternative system and method, the redirector programexecutes on a network server, and the server is programmed to detectnumerous redirection event triggers over the network from multiple userdesktop computers coupled to the server via a LAN. The server canreceive internal event triggers from each of the user desktops via thenetwork, and can also receive external event triggers, such as messagesfrom the users' mobile data communication devices. In response toreceiving one of these triggers, the server redirects the user's dataitems to the proper mobile data communication device. The user dataitems and addressing information for a particular mobile device can bestored at the server or at the user's PC. Using this alternativeconfiguration, one redirector program can serve a plurality of users.This alternative configuration could also include an internet- orintranet-based redirector program that could be accessible through asecure webpage or other user interface. The redirector program could belocated on an Internet Service Provider's system and accessible onlythrough the Internet.

[0020] In another alternative configuration of the present invention, aredirector program operates at both the host system and at the user'smobile data communication device. In this configuration, the user'smobile device operates similarly to the host system described below, andis configured in a similar fashion to push certain user-selected dataitems from the mobile device to the user's host system (or some othercomputer) upon detecting an event trigger at the mobile device, Thisconfiguration provides two-way pushing of information from the host tothe mobile device and from the mobile device to the host. Anotherembodiment of this original redirector concept is to ‘relay’ informationfrom a host to a mobile and onward to another device capable of dealingwith certain messages or attachments. By using a standard likeBluetooth™ the mobile device could receive a message with an attachedprint file and then using Radio Frequency (RF) Bluetooth methods relaythat to the printer to produce a hard copy.

[0021] Wireless mobile data communications devices, especially thosethat can return a confirmation signal to the host that the pushed datahas been received, are especially well suited for this type of pushparadigm. It is also possible for the mobile data communications deviceto include additional information with the confirmation signal,including, any one or more of the following actions, the fact that themessage: has been read (the information associated therewith is a “readsignal”); has been filed in a specific folder (the informationassociated therewith is a “filed signal”); has been forwarded to anotherrecipient (the information associated therewith is a “forward signal”);or, has been replied to (the information associated therewith is a“reply signal”). These actions can then be synchronized with the hostsystem, thus eliminating the need for the user to perform these actionsa second time. The action signals may advantageously be used to indicatethe state of the message at the mobile.

[0022] One aspect of the invention, therefore, provides a method ofindicating at the host system the state of the message at the mobilecommunications device. The steps of this method preferably include: (A)altering the state of a first message at the mobile communicationsdevice thereby creating an altered state; (B) forwarding a status signalto the host system; and, (C) changing at the host system a first messagestatus icon based on the altered state at the mobile communicationsdevice. Therefore, according to one aspect of the invention, the messagestatus icon change indicates an altered state of the message at themobile communication device.

[0023] One aspect of the invention, therefore, provides a method ofindicating at the host system the state of the message at the mobilecommunications device. The steps of this method preferably include: (A)redirecting a first message from the host system to the mobilecommunications device, wherein the first message at the host system hasa first message status icon; (B) receiving the redirected first messagefrom the host system at the mobile communications device; (C) alteringthe state of the first message at the mobile communications devicethereby creating an altered state; (D) forwarding a status signal to thehost system; and, (E) changing at the host system the first messagestatus icon based on the action taken at the mobile communicationsdevice.

[0024] One aspect of the invention provides a method of indicating at afirst device, via the host system, the state of the message at themobile communications device. The steps of this method preferablyinclude: (A) redirecting a first message from the host system to themobile communications device, wherein the first message at the hostsystem has a first message status icon; (B) receiving the redirectedfirst message from the host system at the mobile communications device;(C) altering the state of the first message at the mobile communicationsdevice thereby creating an altered state; (D) forwarding a status signalto the host system; and, (E) changing at the host system the firstmessage status icon based on the action taken at the mobilecommunications device; and (F) forwarding a read-receipt to aread-receipt requester's device.

[0025] One aspect of the invention provides a method of synchronizingmessages between a first system and a second system. The steps of thismethod preferably include: (A) retrieving a first folder hierarchy fromthe first system; (B) retrieving a second folder hierarchy from thesecond system; (C) synchronizing the second folder hierarchy to thefirst folder hierarchy; (D) retrieving a first plurality of messagesfrom the first system, the first plurality of messages being stored infolders within the first folder hierarchy; (E) retrieving a secondplurality of messages from the second system, the second plurality ofmessages being stored in folders within the second folder hierarchy; (F)comparing the first plurality of messages to the second plurality ofmessages to identify common messages stored in both the first and secondfolder hierarchies; (G) determining whether any of the common messagesare stored in different folders in the first and second folderhierarchies; and (H) if a common message is located in different foldersof the first and second folder hierarchies, then synchronizing themessages by moving the common message to a new folder within the firstfolder hierarchy or by moving the common message to a new folder withinthe second folder hierarchy.

[0026] Another aspect of the invention provides a method ofsynchronizing messages stored in a folder hierarchy at a host system anda corresponding folder hierarchy at a mobile data communication device.This method preferably includes the following steps: (A)receiving amessage at the host system; (B) storing the message in a first folder ofthe folder hierarchy at the host system; (C) transmitting the message tothe mobile data communication device; (D) storing the message in a firstfolder of the folder hierarchy at the mobile data communication device;(E) moving the message from the first folder to a second folder at themobile data communication device; (F) coupling the mobile datacommunication device to the host system; (G) detecting that the messagehas been moved to the second folder at the mobile data communicationdevice; and (H) in response to the detection step, moving the messagefrom the first folder at the host system to a second folder of thefolder hierarchy at the host system that corresponds to the secondfolder of the folder hierarchy at the mobile data communication device.

[0027] Still another aspect of the invention provides a method ofsynchronizing messages stored in a folder hierarchy at a host system anda corresponding folder hierarchy at a mobile data communication device,comprising the steps of: (A) receiving a message at the host system; (B)storing the message in a first folder of the folder hierarchy at thehost system; (C) transmitting the message to the mobile datacommunication device; (D) storing the message in a first folder of thefolder hierarchy at the mobile data communication device; (E) moving themessage from the first folder to a second folder at the mobile datacommunication device; (F) transmitting a move message from the mobiledata communication device to the host system indicating that the messagehas been moved to the second folder at the mobile data communicationdevice; and (G) receiving the move message at the host system and movingthe message stored in the first folder at the host system to a secondfolder at the host system that corresponds to the second folder at themobile data communication device.

[0028] Yet another aspect of the invention provides a method ofsynchronizing a first device to a second device, comprising the stepsof: (A) providing a first folder hierarchy at the first device; (B)providing a second folder hierarchy at the second device; (C)synchronizing the second folder hierarchy to the first folder hierarchy;(D) retrieving a first plurality of messages stored within the firstfolder hierarchy and retrieving a second plurality of messages storedwithin the second folder hierarchy, wherein at least one of the firstplurality of messages and at least one of the second plurality ofmessages are common messages; (E) determining whether the commonmessages are stored in similar folders within the first and secondfolder hierarchies; and (F) if the common messages are not stored insimilar folders, then synchronizing the common messages so that they arestored in similar folders within the first and second folderhierarchies.

[0029] Another aspect of the invention provides a method ofsynchronizing a first device to a second device, comprising the stepsof: (A) providing a first folder hierarchy at the first device; (B)providing a second folder hierarchy at the second device; (C) retrievinga first plurality of messages stored within the first folder hierarchyand retrieving a second plurality of messages stored within the secondfolder hierarchy; (D) determining whether the first device executed anoperation on a message stored in the first folder hierarchy, and if so,then executing the same operation on a corresponding message stored inthe second folder hierarchy at the second device.

[0030] Still another aspect of the invention provides a system forsynchronizing messages between a first device and a second device,comprising: a pair of matching folders, one of the pair of matchingfolders being located on the first device, the other of the pair ofmatching folders being located on the second device; a pair of matchingmessages, one of the pair of matching messages being located on thefirst device, the other of the pair of matching messages being locatedon the second device; and means for moving the pair of messages suchthat if one of the pair of matching messages is moved to one of the pairof matching folders, the other matching message is moved to the othermatching folder.

[0031] An advantage of the present invention is that it provides asystem and method for triggering the continuous and real-timeredirection of user-selected data items from a host system to a mobiledata communication device. Other advantages of the present inventioninclude: (1) flexibility in defining the types of user data to redirect,and in defining a preferred list of message types and folder names thatare to be redirected or preferred senders whose messages are to beredirected; (2) flexibility in configuring the system to respond tonumerous internal, external and networked triggering events; (3)transparent repackaging of the user data items in a variety of ways suchthat the mobile data communication device appears as though it were thehost system; (4) integration with other host system components such asE-mail, TCP/IP, keyboard, screen saver, webpages and certain programsthat can either create user data items or be configured to providetrigger points; (5) the ability to operate locally on a user's desktopsystem or at a distance via a network server; (6) the ability to storefolder hierarchies on the mobile data communications device so that usercan organize the information during those periods when information isbeing redirected to said device; and (7) eliminating the need toorganize the information a second time once the user returns to theoffice to work from their host system.

[0032] A further advantage of the present invention is that it providesa software structure and method for managing messages between the mobiledata communication device and the host system. The software provides alogical structure for folders and messages that can detect movement ofmessages between folders on either the mobile data communication deviceor the host system. This allows the user the flexibility to organizemessages into folders on the mobile data communication device withouthaving to replicate the organizational work on the host system, or viceversa. The folder and message software structure further provides theredirector program trigger signals for forwarding messages.

[0033] These are just a few of the many advantages of the presentinvention, as described in more detail below. As will be appreciated,the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and itsseveral details are capable of modifications in various respects, allwithout departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, thedrawings and description of the preferred embodiments set forth beloware to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0034]FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing the redirection of user dataitems from a user's desktop PC (host system) to the user's mobile datacommunication device, where the redirector software is operating at theuser's desktop PC.

[0035]FIG. 2 is a system diagram showing the redirection of user dataitems from a network server (host system) to the user's mobile datacommunication device, where the redirector software is operating at theserver.

[0036]FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the interaction of theredirector software with other components of the host system in FIG. 1(the user's desktop PC) to enable the pushing of information from thehost system to the user's mobile data communication device.

[0037]FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the steps carried out by theredirector software operating at the host system.

[0038]FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the steps carried out by the mobiledata communication device to interface with the redirector softwareoperating at the host system.

[0039]FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the logical structure of a folderand a message.

[0040]FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the steps of synchronizing foldersand messages between the host system and the mobile data communicationdevice.

[0041]FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the steps of assigning IDs tofolders.

[0042]FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the steps of retrieving messagesfrom the store.

[0043]FIG. 10A and B is a flow chart more specifically showing the stepsof synchronizing messages between the host system and the mobile datacommunication device.

[0044]FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the steps of attaching a folder IDto a message.

[0045]FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing the steps of moving a messagelocally on a device.

[0046]FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing the steps of deleting a message.

[0047]FIG. 14 is a flow chart showing the steps of purging a message.

[0048]FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing the steps of generating a folderlist for redirecting messages received at a store.

[0049]FIG. 16 is a flow chart showing the steps of redirecting a messagereceived and filed in the folder list of FIG. 15.

[0050]FIG. 17 is an overview of the invention showing both the datastore at the host system and the data store at the mobile device.

[0051]FIG. 18 a sample representation of host and mobile device datastore hierarchies, this also includes a specific calendar data storeexample.

[0052]FIG. 19 is an example of what happens when a new data item arrivesinto the folder hierarchy, include a specific calendar hierarchyexample.

[0053]FIG. 20 is an example of advanced message status signals beingsent between the host and mobile system.

[0054]FIG. 21 is a flow chart showing an overview of the steps needed toperform over the air folder synchronization.

[0055]FIG. 22 is a flow chart showing the steps of acting upon messagesarriving from the host system at the device.

[0056]FIG. 23 is a flow chart showing possible user actions and some ofthe actions resulting from important user functions.

[0057]FIG. 24 is a flow chart showing how the host system reacts tomessages and commands arriving from the mobile device.

[0058]FIG. 25 is a flow chart showing how the host reacts to messagesarriving from the host system.

[0059]FIG. 26 is a block diagram of yet another mobile communicationdevice 24 in which the instant invention may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0060] Wireless Information Delivery

[0061] This first section illustrates one method for enabling theredirection of information between a host system and a wireless mobiledata communication device. The redirection program 12 is a preferredcomponent of the overall system that facilitates the mirroring of datastore folders between a host system and a mobile device. The ability topush data and commands in real-time over a wireless two-way data networkprovides a perfect vehicle for continuous synchronization of data storesbetween systems.

[0062] Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is an example systemdiagram showing the redirection of user data items (such as message A orC) from a user's office PC (host system) 10 to the user's mobile datacommunication device 24, where the redirector software 12 is operatingat the user's PC. Message A in FIG. 1 represents an internal messagesent from desktop 26 to the user's host system 10 via LAN 14. Message Cin FIG. 1 represents an external message from a sender that is notdirectly connected to LAN 14, such as the user's mobile datacommunication device 24, some other user's mobile device (not shown), orany user connected to the Internet 18. Message C also represents acommand message from the user's mobile data communication device 24 tothe host system 10. As described in more detail in FIG. 3, the hostsystem 10 preferably includes, along with the typical hardware andsoftware associated with a workstation or desktop computer, theredirector program 12, a TCP/IP subsystem 42, a primary message store40, an E-mail subsystem 44, a screen saver subsystem 48, and a keyboardsubsystem 46. In FIG. 1, the host system 10 is the user's desktopsystem, typically located in the user's office. The host system 10 isconnected to a LAN 14, which also connects to other computers 26, 28that may be in the user's office or elsewhere. The LAN 14, in turn, isconnected to a wide area network (“WAN”) 18, preferably the Internet,which is defined by the use of the Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”) to exchange information, butwhich, alternatively could be any other type of WAN. The connection ofthe LAN 14 to the WAN 18 is via high bandwidth link 16, typically a T1or T3 connection. The WAN 18, in turn, is connected to a variety ofgateways 20, via connections 32. A gateway forms a connection or bridgebetween the WAN 18 and some other type of network, such as an RFwireless network, cellular network, satellite network, or othersynchronous or asynchronous land-line connection.

[0063] In the present invention, the terms “redirector” or “redirectorprogram” refers to one or more software modules and programs thatperform together to preferably (1) identify information to be wirelesslyexchanged, (2) compress and decompress the information, (3) encrypt andde-encrypt the information, and (4) envelop and recover from theenvelope the information to be exchanged with a mobile datacommunication device. This redirector software may be a stand-aloneprogram, or it could be incorporated into a larger mail program andperform wireless-centric actions that enables the exchange ofinformation with wireless data communication devices.

[0064] In the example of FIG. 1, a wireless gateway 20 is connected tothe Internet for communicating via wireless link 22 to a plurality ofwireless mobile data communication devices 24. Also shown in FIG. 1 ismachine 30, which could be a FAX machine, a printer, a system fordisplaying images (such as video) or a machine capable of processing andplaying audio files, such as a voice mail system. The present inventionincludes the ability to redirect certain message attachments to such anexternal machine 30 if the redirector program configuration datareflects that the mobile device 24 cannot receive and process theattachments, or if the user has specified that certain attachments arenot to be forwarded to mobile device 24, even if such device can processthose attachments. By way of example, consider an E-mail sent to a userthat includes three attachments—a word processing document, a video clipand an audio clip. The redirection program could be configured to sendthe text of the E-mail to the remote device, to send the word processingdocument to a networked printer located near the user, to send the videoclip to a store accessible through a secure connection through theInternet, and to send the audio clip to the user's voice mail system.This example is not intended to limit the breadth and scope of theinvention, but rather to illustrate the variety of possibilitiesembodied in the redirection concept.

[0065] The preferred mobile data communication device 24 is a hand-heldtwo-way wireless paging computer, a wirelessly enabled palm-topcomputer, a mobile telephone with data messaging capabilities, or awirelessly enabled laptop computer, but could, alternatively be othertypes of mobile data communication devices capable of sending andreceiving messages via a network connection 22. Although it ispreferable for the system to operate in a two-way communications mode,certain aspects of the invention could be beneficially used in a “oneand one-half” or acknowledgment paging environment, or even with aone-way paging system. The mobile data communication device 24 includessoftware program instructions that work in conjunction with theredirector program 12 to enable the seamless, transparent redirection ofuser-selected data items. FIG. 4 describes the basic method steps of theredirector program 12, and FIG. 5 describes the steps of thecorresponding program operating at the mobile device 24.

[0066] In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, notexplicitly shown in the drawings, the mobile device 24 also includes aredirector program. In this embodiment, user selected data items can bereplicated from the host to the mobile device and vice versa. Theconfiguration and operation of the mobile device 24 having a redirectorprogram is similar to that described herein with respect to FIGS. 1-4.

[0067] A user of the present invention can configure the redirectorprogram 12 to push certain user-selected data items to the user's mobiledata communication device 24 when the redirector 12 detects that aparticular user-defined event trigger (or trigger point) has takenplace. User-selected data items preferably include E-mail messages,calendar events, meeting notifications, address entries, journalentries, personal alerts, alarms, warnings, stock quotes, newsbulletins, etc., but could, alternatively, include any other type ofmessage that is transmitted to the host system 10, or that the hostsystem 10 acquires through the use of intelligent agents, such as datathat is received after the host system 10 initiates a search of adatabase or a website or a bulletin board. In some instances, only aportion of the data item is transmitted to the mobile device 24 in orderto minimize the amount of data transmitted via the wireless network 22.In these instances, the mobile device 24 can optionally send a commandmessage to the host system to receive more or all of the data item ifthe user desires to receive it.

[0068] The user-defined event triggers that can be detected by theredirector program 12 preferably include external events, internalevents and networked events. External events preferably include: (1)receiving a command message (such as message C) from the user's mobiledata communication device to begin redirection, or to execute some othercommand at the host, such as a command to enable the preferred listmode, or to add or subtract a particular sender from the preferred list;(2) receiving a similar message from some external computer; and (3)sensing that the user is no longer in the vicinity of the host system;although, alternatively, an external event can be any other detectableoccurrence that is external to the host system. Internal events could bea calendar alarm, screen saver activation, keyboard timeout,programmable timer, or any other user-defined event that is internal tothe host system. Networked events are user-defined messages that aretransmitted to the host system from another computer coupled to the hostsystem via a network to initiate redirection. These are just some of theevents that could be used with the present invention to initiatereplication of the user-selected data items from the host system 10 tothe mobile device 24.

[0069]FIG. 1 shows an E-mail message A being communicated over LAN 14from computer 26 to the user's desktop system 10 (also shown in FIG. 1is an external message C, which could be an E-mail message from anInternet user, or could be a command message from the user's mobiledevice 24). Once the message A (or C) reaches the primary message storeof the host system 10, it can be detected and acted upon by theredirection software 12. The redirection software 12 can use manymethods of detecting new messages. The preferred method of detecting newmessages is using Microsoft's® Messaging API (MAPI), in which programs,such as the redirector program 12, register for notifications or ‘advisesyncs’ when changes to a mailbox take place. Other methods of detectingnew messages could also be used with the present invention.

[0070] Assuming that the redirector program 12 is activated, and hasbeen configured by the user (either through the sensing of an internal,network or external event) to replicate certain user data items(including messages of type A or C) to the mobile device 24, when themessage A is received at the host system 10, the redirector program 12detects its presence and prepares the message for redirection to themobile device 24. In preparing the message A for redirection, theredirector program 12 could compress the original message A, couldcompress the message header, or could encrypt the entire message A tocreate a secure link to the mobile device 24.

[0071] Also programmed into the redirector 12 is the address of theuser's mobile data communication device 24, the type of device, andwhether the device 24 can accept certain types of attachments, such asword processing or voice attachments. If the user's type of mobiledevice cannot accept these types of attachments, then the redirector 12can be programmed to route the attachments to a fax or voice numberwhere the user is located using an attached fax or voice machine 30.

[0072] The redirector may also be programmed with a preferred list modethat is configured by the user either at the host system 10, or remotelyfrom the user's mobile data communication device by transmitting acommand message C. The preferred list contains a list of senders (otherusers) whose messages are to be redirected or a list of messagecharacteristics that determine whether a message is to be redirected. Ifactivated, the preferred list mode causes the redirector program 12 tooperate like a filter, only redirecting certain user data items based onwhether the particular data item was sent from a sender on the preferredlist or has certain message characteristics that if present will triggeror suppress redirection of the message.

[0073] In the example of FIG. 1, if desktop system 26 was operated by auser on the preferred list of host system 10, and the preferred listoption was activated, then message A would be redirected. If, however,desktop 26 was operated by a user not on the host system's preferredlist, then message A would not be redirected, even if the user of thehost system had configured the redirector to push messages of type A.The user of the host system 10 can configure the preferred list directlyfrom the desktop system, or, alternatively, the user can send a commandmessage (such as C) from the mobile device 24 to the desktop system 10to activate the preferred list mode, or to add or delete certain sendersor message characteristics from the preferred list that was previouslyconfigured. It should be appreciated that a redirection program couldcombine message characteristics and preferred sender lists to result ina more finely-tuned filter. Messages marked as low priority or that aresimple return receipts or message read receipts, for example, couldalways be suppressed from redirection while messages from a particularsender would always be redirected.

[0074] After the redirector has determined that a particular messageshould be redirected, and it has prepared the message for redirection,the software 12 then sends the message A to a secondary memory storelocated in the mobile device 24, using whatever means are necessary. Inthe preferred embodiment this method is to send the message A back overthe LAN 14, WAN 18, and through the wireless gateway 20 to the mobiledata communication device 24. In doing so, the redirector preferablyrepackages message A as an E-mail with an outer envelope B that containsthe addressing information of the mobile device 24, although alternativerepackaging techniques and protocols could be used, such as a TCP/IPrepackaging and delivery method (most commonly used in the alternativeserver configuration shown in FIG. 2). The wireless gateway 20 requiresthis outer envelope information B in order to know where to send theredirected message A. Once the message (A in B) is received by themobile device 24, the outer envelope B is removed and the originalmessage A is placed in the secondary memory store within the mobiledevice 24. By repackaging and removing the outer envelope in thismanner, the present invention causes the mobile computer 24 to appear tobe at the same physical location as the host system 10, thus creating atransparent system.

[0075] In the case where message C is representative of an externalmessage from a computer on the Internet 18 to the host system 10, andthe host 10 has been configured to redirect messages of type C, then ina similar manner to message A, message C would be repackaged with anouter envelope B and transmitted to the user's mobile device 24. In thecase where message C is representative of a command message from theuser's mobile device 24 to the host system 10, then the command messageC is not redirected, but is acted upon by the host system 10.

[0076] If the redirected user data item is an E-mail message, asdescribed above, the user at the mobile device 24 sees the originalsubject, sender's address, destination address, carbon copy and blindcarbon copy. When the user replies to this message, or when the userauthors a new message, the software operating at the mobile device 24adds a similar outer envelope to the reply message (or the new message)to cause the message to be routed first to the user's host system 10,which then removes the outer envelope and redirects the message to thefinal destination, such as back to computer 26. In the preferredembodiment, this results in the outgoing redirected message from theuser's host system 10 being sent using the E-mail address of the hostmailbox, rather than the address of the mobile device, so that itappears to the recipient of the message that the message originated fromthe user's desktop system 10 rather than the mobile data communicationdevice. Any replies to the redirected message will then be sent to thedesktop system 10, which if it is still in redirector mode, willrepackage the reply and resend it to the user's mobile data device, asdescribed above.

[0077]FIG. 2 is an alternative system diagram showing the redirection ofuser data items from a network server 11 to the user's mobile datacommunication device 24, where the redirector software 12 is operatingat the server 11 or in conjunction with a message server. For oneskilled in the art is can be appreciated that the redirector softwaremight be an integrated software program linked directly with atraditional message server to provide support for wireless two-way datacommunication devices. This configuration is particularly advantageousfor use with message servers such as Microsoft's ® Exchange Server orLotus's® Notes or Domino Server, which is normally operated so that alluser messages are kept in one central location or mailbox store on theserver instead of in a store within each user's desktop PC. Thisconfiguration has the additional advantage of allowing a single systemadministrator to configure and keep track of all users having messagesredirected. If the system includes encryption keys, these too can bekept at one place for management and update purposes.

[0078] In this alternative configuration, server 11 preferably maintainsa user profile for each user's desktop system 10, 26, 28, includinginformation such as whether a particular user can have data itemsredirected, which types of message and information to redirect, whatevents will trigger redirection, the address of the users' mobile datacommunication device 24, the type of mobile device, and the user'spreferred list, if any. The event triggers are preferably detected atthe user's desktop system 10, 26, 28 and can be any of the external,internal or network events listed above. The desktop systems 10, 26, 28preferably detect these events and then transmit a message to the servercomputer 11 via LAN 14 to initiate redirection. Although the user dataitems are preferably stored at the server computer 11 in thisembodiment, they could, alternatively, be stored at each user's desktopsystem 10, 26, 28, which would then transmit them to the server computer11 after an event has triggered redirection.

[0079] As shown in FIG. 2, desktop system 26 generates a message A thatis transmitted to and stored at the host system 11, which is the networkserver operating the redirector program 12. The message A is for desktopsystem 10, but in this embodiment, user messages are stored at thenetwork server 11. When an event occurs at desktop system 10, an eventtrigger is generated and transmitted to the network server 11, whichthen determines who the trigger is from, whether that desktop hasredirection capabilities, and if so, the server (operating theredirector program) uses the stored configuration information toredirect message A to the mobile computer 24 associated with the user ofdesktop system 10.

[0080] As described above with reference to FIG. 1, message C could beeither a command message from a user's mobile data communication device24, or it could be a message from an external computer, such as acomputer connected to the Internet 18. If the message C is from anInternet computer to the user's desktop system 10, and the user hasredirection capabilities, then the server 11 detects the message C,repackages it using electronic envelope B, and redirects the repackagedmessage (C in B) to the user's mobile device 24. If the message C is acommand message from the user's mobile device 24, then the server 11simply acts upon the command message.

[0081] Turning now to FIG. 3, a block diagram showing the interaction ofthe redirector software 12 with additional components of the host system10 of FIG. 1 (the desktop PC) to enable more fully the pushing ofinformation from the host system 10 to the user's mobile datacommunication device 24 is set forth. These additional components areillustrative of the type of event-generating systems that can beconfigured and used with the redirector software 12, and of the type ofrepackaging systems that can be used to interface with the mobilecommunication device 24 to make it appear transparent to the user.

[0082] The desktop system 10 is connected to LAN 14, and can send andreceive data, messages, signals, event triggers, etc., to and from othersystems connected to the LAN 14 and to external networks 18, 22, such asthe Internet or a wireless data network, which are also coupled to theLAN 14. In addition to the standard hardware, operating system, andapplication programs associated with a typical microcomputer orworkstation, the desktop system 10 includes the redirector program 12, aTCP/IP sub-system 42, an E-mail subsystem 44, a primary data storagedevice 40, a screen saver sub-system 48, and a keyboard sub-system 46.The TCP/IP and E-mail subsystems 42, 44 are examples of repackagingsystems that can be used to achieve the transparency of the presentinvention, and the screen saver and keyboard sub-systems 46, 48 areexamples of event generating systems that can be configured to generateevent messages or signals that trigger redirection of the user selecteddata items.

[0083] The method steps carried out by the redirector program 12 aredescribed in more detail in FIG. 4. The basic functions of this programare: (1) configure and setup the user-defined event trigger points thatwill start redirection; (2) configure the types of user data items forredirection and optionally configure a preferred list of senders whosemessages are to be redirected; (3) configure the type and capabilitiesof the user's mobile data communication device; (4) receive messages andsignals from the repackaging systems and the event generating systems;and (5) command and control the redirection of the user-selected dataitems to the mobile data communication device via the repackagingsystems. Other functions not specifically enumerated could also beintegrated into this program.

[0084] The E-Mail sub-system 44 is the preferred link to repackaging theuser-selected data items for transmission to the mobile datacommunication device 24, and preferably uses industry standard mailprotocols, such as SMTP, POP, IMAP, MIME and RFC-822, to name but a few.The E-Mail sub-system 44 can receive messages A from external computerson the LAN 14, or can receive messages C from some external network suchas the Internet 18 or a wireless data communication network 22, andstores these messages in the primary data store 40. Assuming that theredirector 12 has been triggered to redirect messages of this type, theredirector detects the presence of any new messages and instructs theE-Mail system 44 to repackage the message by placing an outer wrapper Babout the original message A (or C), and by providing the addressinginformation of the mobile data communication device 24 on the outerwrapper B. As noted above, this outer wrapper B is removed by the mobiledevice 24, and the original message A (or C) is then recovered, thusmaking the mobile device 24 appear to be the desktop system 10. Inaddition, the E-Mail sub-system 44 receives messages back from themobile device 24 having an outer wrapper with the addressing informationof the desktop system 10, and strips this information away so that themessage can be routed to the proper sender of the original message A (orC). The E-Mail sub-system also receives command messages C from themobile device 24 that are directed to the desktop system 10 to triggerredirection or to carry out some other function. The functionality ofthe E-Mail sub-system 44 is controlled by the redirector program 12.

[0085] The TCP/IP sub-system 42 is an alternative repackaging system. Itincludes all of the functionality of the E-Mail sub-system 44, butinstead of repackaging the user-selected data items as standard E-mailmessages, this system repackages the data items using special-purposeTCP/IP packaging techniques. This type of special-purpose sub-system isuseful in situations where security and improved speed are important tothe user. The provision of a special-purpose wrapper that can only beremoved by special software on the mobile device 24 provides the addedsecurity, and the bypassing of E-mail store and forward systems canimprove speed and real-time delivery.

[0086] As described previously, the present invention can be triggeredto begin redirection upon detecting numerous external, internal andnetworked events, or trigger points. Examples of external eventsinclude: receiving a command message from the user's mobile datacommunication device 24 to begin redirection; receiving a similarmessage from some external computer; sensing that the user is no longerin the vicinity of the host system; or any other event that is externalto the host system. Internal events could be a calendar alarm, screensaver activation, keyboard timeout, programmable timer, or any otheruser-defined event that is internal to the host system. Networked eventsare user-defined messages that are transmitted to the host system fromanother computer that is connected to the host system via a network toinitiate redirection.

[0087] The screen saver and keyboard sub-systems 46, 48 are examples ofsystems that are capable of generating internal events. Functionally,the redirector program 12 provides the user with the ability toconfigure the screen saver and keyboard systems so that under certainconditions an event trigger will be generated that can be detected bythe redirector 12 to start the redirection process. For example, thescreen saver system can be configured so that when the screen saver isactivated, after, for example, 10 minutes of inactivity on the desktopsystem, an event trigger is transmitted to the redirector 12, whichstarts redirecting the previously selected user data items. In a similarmanner the keyboard sub-system can be configured to generate eventtriggers when no key has been depressed for a particular period of time,thus indicating that redirection should commence. These are just twoexamples of the numerous application programs and hardware systemsinternal to the host system 10 that can be used to generate internalevent triggers.

[0088]FIGS. 4 and 5, set forth, respectively, flow charts showing thesteps carried out by the redirector software 12 operating at the hostsystem 10, and the steps carried out by the mobile data communicationdevice 24 in order to interface with the host system. Turning first toFIG. 4, at step 50, the redirector program 12 is started and initiallyconfigured. The initial configuration of the redirector 12 includes: (1)defining the event triggers that the user has determined will triggerredirection; (2) selecting the user data items for redirection; (3)selecting the repackaging sub-system, either standard E-Mail, orspecial-purpose technique; (4) selecting the type of data communicationdevice, indicating whether and what type of attachments the device iscapable of receiving and processing, and inputting the address of themobile device; and (5) configuring the preferred list of user selectedsenders whose messages are to be redirected.

[0089]FIG. 4 sets forth the basic steps of the redirector program 12assuming it is operating at a desktop system 10, such as shown inFIG. 1. If the redirector 12 is operating at a network server 11, asshown in FIG. 2, then additional configuration steps may be necessary toenable redirection for a particular desktop system 10, 26, 28 connectedto the server, including: (1) setting up a profile for the desktopsystem indicating its address, events that will trigger redirection, andthe data items that are to be redirected upon detecting an event; (2)maintaining a storage area at the server for the data items; and (3)storing the type of data communication device to which the desktopsystem's data items are to be redirected, whether and what type ofattachments the device is capable of receiving and processing, and theaddress of the mobile device.

[0090] Once the redirector program is configured 50, the trigger points(or event triggers) are enabled at step 52. The program 12 then waits 56for messages and signals 54 to begin the redirection process. A messagecould be an E-Mail message or some other user data item than may havebeen selected for redirection, and a signal could be a trigger signal,or could be some other type of signal that has not been configured as anevent trigger. When a message or signal is detected, the programdetermines 58 whether it is one of the trigger events that has beenconfigured by the user to signal redirection. If so, then at step 60 atrigger flag is set, indicating that subsequently received user dataitems (in the form of messages) that have been selected for redirectionshould be pushed to the user's mobile data communication device 24.

[0091] If the message or signal 54 is not a trigger event, the programthen determines at steps 62, 68 and 66 whether the message is,respectively, a system alarm 62, an E-Mail message 64, or some othertype of information that has been selected for redirection. If themessage or signal is none of these three items, then control returns tostep 56, where the redirector waits for additional messages 54 to actupon. If, however the message is one of these three types ofinformation, then the program 12 determines, at step 68, whether thetrigger flag has been set, indicating that the user wants these itemsredirected to the mobile device. If the trigger flag is set, then atstep 70, the redirector 12 causes the repackaging system (E-Mail orTCP/IP) to add the outer envelope to the user data item, and at step 72the repackaged data item is then redirected to the user's mobile datacommunication device 24 via LAN 14, WAN 18, wireless gateway 20 andwireless network 22. Control then returns to step 56 where the programwaits for additional messages and signals to act upon. Although notshown explicitly in FIG. 4, after step 68, the program could, ifoperating in the preferred list mode, determine whether the sender of aparticular data item is on the preferred list, and if not, then theprogram would skip over steps 70 and 72 and proceed directly back tostep 56. If the sender was on the preferred list, then control wouldsimilarly pass to steps 70 and 72 for repackaging and transmission ofthe message from the preferred list sender.

[0092]FIG. 5 sets forth the method steps carried out by the user'smobile data communication device 24 in order to interface to theredirector program 12 of the present invention. At step 80 the mobilesoftware is started and the mobile device 24 is configured to operatewith the system of the present invention, including, for example,storing the address of the user's desktop system 10.

[0093] At step 82, the mobile device waits for messages and signals 84to be generated or received. Assuming that the redirector software 12operating at the user's desktop system 10 is configured to redirect uponreceiving a message from the user's mobile device 24, at step 86, theuser can decide to generate a command message that will startredirection. If the user does so, then at step 88 the redirectionmessage is composed and sent to the desktop system 10 via the wirelessnetwork 22, through the wireless gateway 20, via the Internet 18 to theLAN 14, and is finally routed to the desktop machine 10. In thissituation where the mobile device 24 is sending a message directly tothe desktop system 10, no outer wrapper is added to the message (such asmessage C in FIGS. 1 and 2). In addition to the redirection signal, themobile device 24 could transmit any number of other commands to controlthe operation of the host system, and in particular the redirectorprogram 12. For example, the mobile 24 could transmit a command to putthe host system into the preferred list mode, and then could transmitadditional commands to add or subtract certain senders from thepreferred list. In this manner, the mobile device 24 can dynamicallylimit the amount of information being redirected to it by minimizing thenumber of senders on the preferred list. Other example commands include:(1) a message to change the configuration of the host system to enablethe mobile device 24 to receive and process certain attachments; and (2)a message to instruct the host system to redirect an entire data item tothe mobile device in the situation where only a portion of a particulardata item has been redirected.

[0094] Turning back to FIG. 5, if the user signal or message is not adirect message to the desktop system 10 to begin redirection (or someother command), then control is passed to step 90, which determines if amessage has been received. If a message is received by the mobile, andit is a message from the user's desktop 10, as determined at step 92,then at step 94 a desktop redirection flag is set “on” for this message,and control passes to step 96 where the outer envelope is removed.Following step 96, or in the situation where the message is not from theuser's desktop, as determined at step 92, control passes to step 98,which displays the message for the user on the mobile device's display.The mobile unit 24 then returns to step 82 and waits for additionalmessages or signals.

[0095] If the mobile device 24 determines that a message has not beenreceived at step 90, then control passes to step 100, where the mobiledetermines whether there is a message to send. If not, then the mobileunit returns to step 82 and waits for additional messages or signals. Ifthere is at least one message to send, then at step 102 the mobiledetermines whether it is a reply message to a message that was receivedby the mobile unit. If the message to send is a reply message, then atstep 108, the mobile determines whether the desktop redirection flag ison for this message. If the redirection flag is not on, then at step 106the reply message is simply transmitted from the mobile device to thedestination address via the wireless network 22. If, however, theredirection flag is on, then at step 110 the reply message is repackagedwith the outer envelope having the addressing information of the user'sdesktop system 10, and the repackaged message is then transmitted to thedesktop system 10 at step 106. As described above, the redirectorprogram 12 executing at the desktop system then strips the outerenvelope and routes the reply message to the appropriate destinationaddress using the address of the desktop system as the “from” field, sothat to the recipient of the redirected message, it appears as though itoriginated from the user's desktop system rather than the mobile datacommunication device.

[0096] If, at step 102, the mobile determines that the message is not areply message, but an original message, then control passes to step 104,where the mobile determines if the user is using the redirector software12 at the desktop system 10, by checking the mobile unit'sconfiguration. If the user is not using the redirector software 12, thenthe message is simply transmitted to the destination address at step106. If, however, the mobile determines that the user is using theredirector software 12 at the desktop system 10, then control passes tostep 110, where the outer envelope is added to the message. Therepackaged original message is then transmitted to the desktop system 10at step 106, which, as described previously, strips the outer envelopeand routes the message to the correct destination. Followingtransmission of the message at step 106, control of the mobile returnsto step 82 and waits for additional messages or signals.

[0097]FIGS. 1 through 5 presented a method for enabling a message serverto exchange information with a wireless data communication device. Thissame method can also be used with the folder synchronization invention,although one skilled in the art can appreciate that other push methodscould be used to enable the synchronization of folders. The next twosections detail two complementary ways for keeping information foldersat a host system and mobile device in synchronization. The firstsection, which extends from FIG. 6 through to FIG. 14, provides a layoutof how folders and information within folders can be identified andlabeled to assist with synchronization. This first section alsodescribes in detail a discrete synchronization step and covers broadlyhow over-the-air synchronization can complement a bulk plug-in methodfor synchronization. The second section illustrates more graphically howa continuous real-time synchronization takes place over the wirelesslink as any changes occur on either of the two systems.

[0098] Folder Synchronization Basics

[0099] Organizing and storing messages in the mobile device 24 and thehost system 10 is set forth in FIGS. 6 through 18. The mobile device 24preferably includes a hierarchical folder system, as does the hostsystem 10. The user can select from multiple levels of folders to find acertain folder. For example, the user can organize messages intocategories such as friends, co-workers, contacts, and “to do” list onthe mobile device 24 and at the host system 10. Software on the mobiledevice 24 and the host system 10 organizes the messages so that filing amessage on either the mobile device 24 or the host system 10 will berecognized at the other end either by commands sent through theredirector program or by synchronizing the mobile device with the hostsystem. Synchronization can occur, for example, by plugging the mobiledevice into an interface cradle coupled to the host system or through awireless device-to-host interface.

[0100]FIG. 6 sets forth a preferred message structure 120 and folderstructure 130 for messages and folders that are stored on the hostsystem 10 and the mobile device 24. The message structure 120 includes amessage body and a message header. The message header preferablyincludes tags such as a message ID and a folder ID. The message ID is aunique tag that is associated with a single message. The message ID isassigned to a message when the message is received in the store. Thefolder ID is a tag that contains the unique ID of the folder in whichthe message is to be stored.

[0101] The folder structure includes a folder ID, folder type, foldername, parent folder ID, and parent folder type. The folder ID is aunique tag for each folder. The folder ID is generated when the mobiledevice 24 is synchronized to the host system 10. The folder typespecifies attributes of the folder that differentiate it from otherfolders. One such folder could be a deleted items folder. The deleteditems folder could be set to automatically purge messages after a giventime. The folder name is the name of the folder that will be displayedon the device 24 or the host system 10. The parent folder ID is thefolder ID of the folder that is one level above the current folder inthe hierarchical system. The parent folder type specifies attributes ofthe parent folder that differentiates it from other folders. One skilledin the art will appreciate that this representation is just one formatand method for identifying folders and information within folders. Theinvention itself would work just as well with any other format andidentification method.

[0102]FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating the basic steps ofsynchronizing folders and messages between the host system 10 and themobile device 24. Bulk synchronization starts in step 140 when themobile device 24 is coupled to the host system 10 by, for example, (1)placing the device in an interface cradle or a suitable equivalent; or(2) initiating an over-the-wireless-network synchronization. In thisstep, the folder hierarchy is received and tagged and the folder list iscreated in step 142 from a store at the host system 10. In step 144, themobile device 24 is updated using the list of folders from the store.After the folders on the mobile device are updated 144 to match thefolder structures 130 in the host system 10, the messages stored in thehost system 10 are retrieved in step 146. The messages in the mobiledevice 24 are similarly retrieved in step 148. Step 150 compares theunique message IDs of messages in the mobile device 24 and the hostsystem 10 to find similar messages. Once similar messages are found onthe mobile device 24 and the host system 10, step 152 determines whetheror not a message has been moved within the folder system. When one ofthe two messages (host message and mobile device message) is determinedto have been moved, the other message is moved to the folder thatmatches the folder ID of the moved message in step 154. All similarmessages from the mobile device 24 and the host system 10 are checked todetermine 152 where the messages should be placed and moved 154accordingly.

[0103] The folder structure synchronization process 136 firstsynchronizes the folder hierarchy of the mobile device 24 to thehierarchy of the host system and then moves a message that the user hasfiled in a folder on the mobile device 24 to the corresponding folder onthe host system 10. Correspondingly, when the user has filed a messagein a folder on the host system 10, the folder structure synchronizationprocess 136 will move the message to the corresponding folder on themobile device 24. This is advantageous, for example, for a user who useshis default message receive folder (inbox) as a measure of incompleteand complete jobs. It also eliminates the need to deal with the messagea second time once the user returns to the office and uses primarily thehost system and the associated folder structure therein.

[0104]FIGS. 8 through 14 illustrate in more detail the steps required tosynchronize the messages and folders of the mobile device 24 to the hostsystem 10. FIG. 8 sets forth the method steps carried out by the hostsystem 10 to assign folder IDs to the folders (step 142 from FIG. 7).When the mobile device 24 is coupled with 160 the host system 10, thelast assigned folder ID is retrieved from the mobile device 24 at step162. A “special” folder list is retrieved in step 164 from the store ofthe host system 10. A “special” folder is a folder such as a deletedfolder or an inbox folder where specific rules are set for managingmessages within the folder. Based on the hierarchical structure, thehost system 10 gets the top folder in step 166 and checks if the topfolder is flagged in step 168. If the top folder is not flagged, step170 assigns a folder ID to the folder based on the last assigned numberretrieved in step 162. Once the top folder is assigned an ID number, thetop folder is checked against the special folders and assigned a foldertype in step 172.

[0105] By continuing to select through the hierarchical folderstructure, step 174 retrieves subfolders of the top folder. Thesubfolder is checked for a folder ID in step 176 and assigned a folderID in step 178 if no folder ID is found in step 176. Step 180 assigns afolder type to the subfolder. Step 182 checks for a subfolder underneaththe current folder. If another subfolder is found, it is assigned as thetop folder in step 184 and returned to step 174. If there are no moresubfolders underneath the current subfolder, step 186 retrieves the nextsubfolder and returns the retrieved subfolder to step 176. Once the lastsubfolder is retrieved, step 190 ends the tag and retrieve step 142 ofthe folder structure synchronization process 136. Overall, this is arecursive operation performed for all the subfolders starting from thetop folder of the information store.

[0106]FIG. 9 sets forth the steps of retrieving the messages from thehost system 10 as shown in step 146 of FIG. 7. Step 200 retrieves thelist of messages from the store that have the unique IDs assigned tothem. The message is checked for a folder ID in step 202. If a folder IDis not assigned, the current folder ID is assigned to the message instep 204. Step 206 checks the folder ID of the message against thecurrent folder ID to see if they match. If the current folder ID and thefolder ID on the message do not match, a move flag is set in step 208.The current folder ID is indicated in step 210, the next message isretrieved in step 212, and the next message is returned to step 202.Once all messages with unique IDs have been retrieved in step 212, theprocess ends in step 214. The list of messages with unique IDs retrievedfrom the store is referred to as messages ‘A’.

[0107] The steps set forth in FIG. 9 are repeated for the mobile device24. The messages from the mobile device 24 are referred to as messages‘B’. Once these steps have been accomplished, the folder structuresynchronization process 136 includes a list of all unique messages ‘B’and ‘A’ in the mobile device 24 and the host system 10, respectively.For each message in the list, a move flag is either on or off. The moveflags of equivalent messages in the set of messages ‘A’ and ‘B’ arecompared in FIGS. 10A and 10B to determine the proper folder placementof the message.

[0108]FIGS. 10A and 10B set forth the steps of synchronizing themessages between the host system 10 and the mobile device 24. Step 220of FIG. 10 checks to see if there is a match between the message IDs ofthe current message ‘A’ and the first message ‘B’. If the IDs do notmatch, step 222 updates message ‘B’ to the next message in the list of‘B’ messages. Once a matching message is found, step 224 checks if themove flag for message ‘A’ is on and the move flag for message ‘B’ isoff. If this is the case, message ‘B’ is moved to the folder having thefolder ID of message ‘A’ on the mobile device 24 in step 226. If themove flag status is not equal to the check in step 224, step 230 checksfor a different flag status.

[0109] Step 230 checks if the move flag for message ‘B’ is on and themove flag for message ‘A’ is off If this is the case, message ‘A’ ismoved to the folder having the folder ID of message ‘B’ on the hostsystem in step 232. If the move flag status is not equal to the check instep 230, step 234 checks for move flags in both message ‘A’ and message‘B’ to be on. If both flags are on, step 238 decides which message tomove based on a conflict resolution structure. The conflict resolutionstructure is a predetermined rule where the software moves one of themessages based on the folder ID of the other message. If both flags areoff, step 240 checks to see if the folder IDs of message ‘A’ and message‘B’ are different. If the folder IDs are different, the conflictresolution structure of step 238 decides which message to move. If thefolder IDs are the same, messages ‘A’ and ‘B’ remain in their currentfolders as shown in step 242.

[0110] Step 246 checks if message ‘B’ was moved. If message ‘B’ was notmoved, the message ‘B’ move flag is reset in step 250. Message ‘A’ ischecked in step 252 to see if it moved. If message ‘A’ did not move, themove flag for message ‘A’ is reset 254. This is accomplished by updatingthe folder ID on message ‘A’ with the folder ID that was found in duringstep 210. The procedure for checking the move status of the messages iscompleted in step 256.

[0111]FIG. 11 sets forth the preferable method steps of assigning an IDto a newly received message at the host system for redirection. FIG. 11is also used in the second section with respect to continuous real-timesynchronization of messages between two folder hierarchies. When a newmessage is received in step 260, the message is tagged with a unique IDin step 262. Once the message has a unique ID, step 264 checks if thefolder in which the message is to be stored has an assigned folder ID.If the folder has an ID, the folder ID of the message structure 120 forthe new message is set to the folder ID value in step 266. If the folderdoes not have an ID, the folder ID of the message structure 120 for thenew message is set to zero as shown in step 268. After the folder ID hasbeen set in step 266 or 268, the message is sent to the device by theredirector in step 270.

[0112] The user has the option to move a message between folders oneither the mobile device 24 or the host system 10. For example, a userwho has a “to do” folder on both the host system 10 and the mobiledevice 24, might receive a message on the mobile device 24 when he isaway from his host system 10. The redirector program might be instructedto place incoming messages into an Inbox folder on the device. Afterreviewing the message, the user decides to file the message into the “todo” folder on the mobile device 24. The software system for organizingmessages and folders on the mobile device 24 sends a move signal to thehost system 10 to move the same message to the “to do” folder on thehost system. Later, the user decides to move the message again to a“completed tasks” folder which also resides on both the mobile device 24and the host system 10, but this time the user initiates the move at thehost system 10. The host system 10 sends a move signal to the mobiledevice 24 to initiate the same move on the mobile device 24. This methodand system of moving messages between folders on the host system 10 andthe mobile device 24 employs the “push” paradigm of the redirectorsoftware. The method steps for moving the message between folders areshown in FIG. 12 and the method steps of FIGS. 13-17 show the stepstaken at the host system 10 and the mobile device 24 when the user hasinitiated a move on at either the host system or mobile device.

[0113] As shown in FIG. 12, to file a message on the mobile device 24,the message is selected in step 280. A folder to place the message isselected in step 282. The selected message is moved to the selectedfolder in step 284. The folder ID of the selected folder is assigned tothe folder ID of the message structure 120 for the selected message instep 286 and the move flag status is set in step 288. Finally, themessage has been properly moved and the steps end at step 290.

[0114] The method of continuous over-the-air-synchronization process ispreferable; however, such continuous real-time synchronization hasdrawbacks when continuously (or frequently) transmitting data packetsover the wireless network. Some of the drawbacks include (1) lowbandwidth on the particular wireless network that the mobile deviceworks with is not very robust to handle an overwhelming amount of datatransfers, (2) higher costs for the service provider, user or both aregenerally associated with such frequent data exchanges and (3) heavierpower usage on the mobile device's power source may prematurely drainthe power resources of the mobile device. Therefore, it may be desirableto (1) switch the over-the-air-synchronization feature off and to leavesynchronization of information organization until device-hostsynchronization through the wired interface cradle or (2) leave theoption to the user to switch on the feature for a period of time untilswitched off by the user or after the expiration of predetermined periodof time. In another embodiment of the present invention, the mobiledevice 24 bundles together and preferably compresses the varioussynchronizations, move commands (or other operations) created during theday and transmits the bundled information as one or more data packettransmissions during non-peak network usage or transmission times.Preferably, the bundling and the optional compression step reduces thenumber of data packets to be sent over the wireless network. At the hostsystem, the redirector component receives, unbundles and appropriatelyacts on the information. Advantageously, this store, delay and transmitmethod reduces the power requirements for the mobile device therebyconserving the power store of the mobile device and may be used for anytype of data item or certain types of data items. For example, thedevice may do the automatic over-the-network continuous transmission ofemails and calendar events from the device, but delay the transmissionof folder moves until non-peak times or alternatively, delaycommunication of such changes until a physical synchronization occurs.

[0115] The steps set forth in FIG. 13 show how the device accordinglyhandles a delete request. The step of deleting a piece of informationcould be considered the same as moving the information to a deletedfolder. As such once the user preforms this step it cannot be lost andmust be synchronized with the host system so that the folder contentsare mirrored between the two systems. The delete process is started 380when the user has selected a message for deleting. The message isselected 382 and then deleted 384 by the software on the mobile device24. The software on the device then determines 386 if the delete featureis set to delete messages on both the mobile device 24 and the hostsystem 10. If the delete feature is not set for the host system and thedevice, the software simply deletes the message locally 390. If thedelete feature is set for the host system and the device, the folder IDof the deleted folder is assigned to the message in step 392. The moveflag for the message is set on 394 so that the deletion can be detectedon the other device. The delete process is completed 396, In the casewhere the user deletes a message on the host system, the deletion ofthat message will be reflected upon synchronization.

[0116] Finally, the folder management system controls wasted use ofresources by purging the earliest messages once allocated space isexceeded, as shown in FIG. 14. The purge process is started in step 400.The software determines 402 if storage requirements exceed the storagespace allocated for messages. If the storage requirements are notexceeded, the purge process is ended 404. If the storage space isexceeded the earliest message is deleted, but the message structure 120is retained in step 406.

[0117]FIGS. 15 and 16 set forth a method of using folder lists as atrigger source for the redirector program 12. In FIG. 15, the userselects 408 a folder and the folder is stored 410 in the folder list.FIG. 16 shows the steps set forth for forwarding a message based on thefolder list. The message could, for instance be a new piece of mail. Thefolder list is loaded 412. A new mail notification is received 414. Thesoftware checks if the mail is in a folder from the folder list in step416. If the mail is not in a folder listed in the folder list, theprocess stops 418. If the mail is in a folder listed in the folder list,then the redirector forwards the message to the mobile device 24 in step420, as described above.

[0118] Another embodiment of the current invention is the ability tomodify the message status and folder status icons as changes aresynchronized with the host system. This embodiment can work eitherover-the-air or during a bulk transfer of message status information.Traditionally, message status icons are associated with messages at thehost system 10. A message status icon is a graphical image indicatingthe state of the message. States may indicate that: a message is new, amessage has been read, a message has been deleted, a message has beenforwarded, a message has been replied to, a message has been filed orany combination thereof. The message status icon is preferably in closephysical proximity, when viewed by the user as a list of messages, tothe corresponding message and other corresponding message details (suchas subject, sender's name, arrival time, etc.) in the graphical userinterface. By way of example, if a user at the host system forwards amessage from the host system to another party, the message status iconwill be altered in appearance to indicate to the user a forwardingaction has been applied to that particular message. In this manner andadvantageously, the user has a quick visual method of reviewing a listof messages in a folder and the states of the messages, thereby knowingthe actions that have already taken place with respect to those messagesat the host system 10.

[0119] In accordance with the present invention and preferably, as aconsequence of receiving a set of folders and messages within thosefolders at the mobile device 24, the mobile device 24 will eitherremember message state changes or they will be communicated with amessage. For example if the user performs a ‘Reply’ to a message thenwhen the host system 10 receives that reply it will modify the messagestatus icon in the appropriate folder. The host system 10 will be ableto process at least one of a plurality of action signals from the mobile24 (i.e., a read signal, a filed signal, a forward signal or a replysignal), a graphical change will occur at the host system 10 to amessage status icon, which is associated with the message acted upon atthe mobile, to indicate to the user upon his return and access to thehost system that the message has been acted upon (i.e., read, repliedto, forwarded and/or filed, etc.) at the mobile. The graphical changewill result in a second message status icon distinguishable from thefirst message status icon and, preferably, the graphical representationof the second message status icon clearly illustrates the state of themessage. In one embodiment of the present invention, described in detailin the next section, and preferably as a consequence of receiving afiled signal, the host system application associated with the messagewill move the message to the appropriate folder so that the user uponhis return and access of the host system will see information organizedin the same manner as in the mobile device. In the case of a filedmessage that is also read at the mobile, the corresponding message, atthe host system, is moved and the message status icon associatedtherewith at the host system is altered to indicate the read status.Likewise, in the case where a message is read and forwarded to anotherparty at the mobile, a single second message status icon will preferablyrepresent both statuses (i.e, read and forwarded). Preferably, anysecond message status icon graphical representation resulting from anaction event taking place at the mobile is the same graphicalrepresentation that would occur if the action event had been undertakenat the host system 10 rather than the mobile 24. Alternatively and atthe user's control preferably, any graphical representation is clearlydistinguishable as to be the status change resulting from an actiontaking place at the mobile versus an action taking place at the hostsystem. In the latter embodiment, the user of the redirector systemherein will have quick and reliable information as to where the messagewas read, filed, forwarded, or replied from. Preferably and where aread-receipt is requested by a sender of the message, upon receiving theread signal from the mobile, the redirector or any associated messageapplication such MS Exchange™ or Lotus Notes™ will direct a read-receiptsignal to the read-receipt requester.

[0120] Folder Synchronization advanced Methods

[0121] As laid out in the first section there are many basics necessaryfor any folder synchronization to take place. The idea of a one-timebulk synchronization, a step of labeling the folders in a consistentfashion and the idea of a bulk synchronization after many changes havebeen made are all important to any synchronization. The main advantageof using a bulk method for synchronization is to reduce airtime costs.If the cost factor were to be eliminated it is possible to perform allthe steps over the air or to mix the modes so the only time a bulksynchronization would be performed is when the user uses the inventionfor the first time (“The Setup Stage”).

[0122] The process of synchronizing all this information between thesetwo data stores can take place in several possible ways. As mentionedthe user might select a ‘batch-mode’ method to reduce air-time costs andsave battery life. If the batch mode is used then the software couldeither use a very slow and time consuming method of compare each messageto determine which messages from the mobile data store had moved fromthe host data store. The next most advanced method would be to usefolder Ids and message Ids, combined with ‘move’ indicator flags tofacilitate knowing which messages had been moved from a first folderinto a second folder. This effectively would create a ‘change list’ ofactions performed by the user. In the preferred embodiment if the userdid not select the batch-mode approach but performed the real-timeover-the-air method, this later technique would be the best method. Thismethod would also use folder Ids and message Ids to facilitate theidentification and movement of messages and the modification of folders.This advanced real-time, over-the-air mirroring of information (i.e.,synchronized) is illustrated in FIGS. 17 through 25. The advanced methodof performing all synchronization over the wireless network is referredhereinafter as the “over-the-air-move” process.

[0123]FIG. 17 presents several elements of the overall system. The datastore that is part of the message server is comprised of many sub-datastores, in this example shown are calendar stores for different users.One of the responsibilities of the wireless component, which isintegrated with the message server, is to mirror all or part of the datastore at or associated with the message server with corresponding datastores on mobile devices.

[0124] Turning now to FIG. 17 there is a message server 500, that isoperating at, associated with or working in conjunction with the hostsystem 10. The message server 500 is generally a very complex piece ofsoftware that might manage all the information within a corporation thatpreferably resides behind the host system or corporate firewall 11. Theheart of this message server could be a Microsoft Exchange Server™,Lotus Notes Server™, an Oracle™ Database Server, an SQL Server, or somecombination thereof. Furthermore, the preceding list of message serverscould also be the next generation of message servers that has one ormore components to manage and handle data traffic flow to and frommobile devices associated with users or accounts of the message server.One component of the message server 500 is a data storage 504 facilitythat holds each individual users data that is configured to access themessage server. In this example the message server 500 also has aWireless Component 506, and a mobile table 502. The mobile table 502 maybe part of the Wireless Component 506, but is preferably populated bythe Wireless Component 506, as users are configured. In this example thedata store 504 is composed of many Calendar storage areas 508, that areall sub-components of the data store. The Calendar Folders areeffectively just one group of folders that are present in the messageserver. Also shown are a series of other folders 510 including an e-mailfolder, a contact folder and a task list folder.

[0125] Some of the functions of the Wireless Component 506 includeinterfaces to the mobile device 24 through a wireless network 512 andencoding and decoding messages and commands that must be exchanged.Another element of the Wireless Component 506 is the detection of folderchanges or the execution of folder changes on behalf of the mobiledevice 24. As changes take place on either the host system 10 or themobile device 24, calendar messages 514 are exchanged over a securecommunication link via the wireless network 512. The wireless component506 uses a mobile table, that is kept either in the message server or inthe data store, to map a user of the host system or message server to amobile device. Effectively this mapping allows changes between themessage server data store and the mobile device's data store to bemapped to each other. The wireless component 506 maintains a constant,real-time link between the two systems over the wireless network 512. Oneach mobile device 24 is a copy of parts of the data store that was onthe host system. In this example a calendar data store 516 is shown, butother data stores could also be present simultaneously on the mobiledevice 24.

[0126] Looking at FIGS. 18, 19 and 20 these are a series of diagramsshowing a sample representation of two data store hierarchies and howthese hierarchies interact with each other. The advanced concept ofreal-time data storage mirroring between a host system and a mobiledevice is unique to this invention. In the preferred embodiment, theuser's experience with the mobile device virtually or at leastsubstantially mirrors their experience on the host system. Whether thedata store has categories and folders of contact names, email messages,to-do items, expense lists, calendar entries, work flow jobs or journalentries the user can have a consistent filing experience on both themobile device and the host system.

[0127] Turning now to FIG. 18 there are two message stores both for ahost system 10A/10B and a mobile device 24. Within the host system10A/10B there is also present redirection software 12A or 12B being usedto exchange data items with the mobile computer 24. These two systemseach have their own individual hierarchies 520 and 522 respectively. Inthis example the mobile device 24 hierarchy 522 is a subset of thelarger host 10 folder hierarchy 520, The hierarchies are defined withboth folder names (like folder 1—Level 1) and data items stored withinthose folders (like data item 1 in folder B). Each folder name has alevel based on its relationship to other folders within the system. Inthe preferred embodiment the user's mobile device folders 24 might startout matching the host's folders, but this is not a requirement and theuser could change the configuration of their folders while they aretraveling by adding or modifying the folders. At some point in time,either by a direct serial connection or via wireless data exchange thefolders are synchronized to match each other. In this description of theembodiment the changes are synchronized using a real-time, over-the-airlink.

[0128] Once the folders are synchronized the software can then proceedto synchronize data items within those folders. This is done either byretrieving messages at the host system 10 and the mobile system 24 andcomparing their locations (520 and 522), or by marking those messagethat have moved. The later case is called ‘batch-mode’ synchronizationand was discussed in the last section. In the preferred embodiment thereis no batch synchronization and every message that is moved or changedon the mobile device 24 eventually causes a command to be sent back tothe host system 10. Such a command might be piggybacked on top of anormal data message leaving the mobile device to reduce overall trafficfrom the mobile device. In other words, the command and the data messagecould be packaged together and then transmitted from the device, oralternatively, the command could be packaged, the data message couldalso be packaged and then the two packaged items may be then becollectively packaged and then transmitted from the device.

[0129] To help understand how a folder hierarchy is used with conventionuser data there is a further example in FIG. 18 showing a calendarhierarchy. In the Host Calendar Folder 524 the top folder is representedby a Calendar Year, like 2001. The next subsequent folder level calledLevel 1, is represented by a month like January or February. The nextsubsequent folder level, called level 2, is represented by a day of theweek. As one skilled in the art can appreciate there might be other waysto divide up the folder hierarchy but the intention is the same. Eachlevel has a relationship to each other, and message are filed into thehierarchy based on their relationship to the levels. For example asshown there is a meeting present in Room B on Day ‘N’, in the month ofFebruary, within the year 2001. This meeting was filed here specificallybecause the meeting information entered by the user corresponded to thisfolder location. Also shown in this example is the fact that the mobiledevice 24 does not have the calendar year 2002. This is possible to savememory or space on the mobile device 24, and can be controlled by theuser when they are setting up the system and configuring the host system10 and mobile device 24.

[0130] Turning now to FIG. 19 there is an exchange of informationbetween the host system and the mobile device. In this example a dataitem 530 is exchanged between the host system 10 and the mobile device24. In the preferred embodiment in step 1 a data item 530 arrives fromthe Internet or the Intranet and is placed in a folder based on apre-configured rule established by the user or that is part of thehost's reception system. Data item iii (530) has been added to folderA—Level 2. In step 2 this data item iii 530 is then redirected to themobile device 24 as described in earlier sections following the triggerand redirection rules that are part of the redirection software 12. Thisdata item 530 then arrives at the mobile device 24 and is placed into acertain folder by default, in this case matching the original folderA—Level 2. In step 3 after reviewing the new data item 530 the userdecides to file the message into another folder, folder B—Level 2, aspart of their categorization process. In step 4 this movement is thenreflected back to the host system 10 in a command sequence that mightalso include an special Id (identification) assigned to the message andan Id for the folder it should be moved into. For one skilled in the artthese Ids are easily assigned and maintained for tracking folders anddata items between the two independent systems. The entire sequence isthen terminated in step 5 where the user's actions on the mobile device24 is carried out on the host system 10 and the data item iii is alsomoved to Folder B—Level 2 on behalf of the user. This action at the hostsystem 24 effectively mirrors exactly the action performed on the dataitem iii 530 on the mobile device 24.

[0131]FIG. 19 also shows a real life example where the same set of stepsis performed on a calendar data store on a host system 524 and a mobiledevice 526. In step 1 of this calendar example the user's secretaryenters a new appointment 532 for the user in their own calendar on thecompanies message server 500. The meeting is at 11:45 am in Room C onwhat appears to be a very busy day already. Step 2 has this new calendarentry redirected to the mobile device 24 as previous described using thewireless component 506 of the message server 500. In step 3 the userreviews the new calendar entry and moves it to Day 2, which is currentlyempty. This movement causes step 4 to take place and results in a ‘movecommand’ being sent to the message server 500, via the wirelesscomponent 506 indicating the item number that has been moved. Thiscommand also provides the data items original folder (Day N) and its newfolder (Day 2). Step 5 is when the message server 500 moves the calendarentry 532 into the new Day 2 folder just as the user requested from themobile device 24.

[0132] Reviewing FIG. 20 there is example of how every change to dataitems within the folder hierarchy can be mirrored back to the hostsystem in order to keep the two systems completely in synchronization.Once the user does arrive back to their host system desktop computerthis real-time synchronization also has the benefit of allowing the userto see exactly what has happened to their data folders while they weretraveling. The method used to maintain this real-time synchronization isto send a series of signals or message status flags back to the messageserver. This additional information may or may not be piggybacked withreal message data, and can include one or more of the following actions,the fact that the message: has been read (the information associatedtherewith is a “read signal”); has been filed in a specific folder (theinformation associated therewith is a “filed signal”); has beenforwarded to another recipient (the information associated therewith isa “forward signal”); or, has been replied to (the information associatedtherewith is a “reply signal”). These actions can then be synchronizedwith the host system, thus eliminating the need for the user to performthese actions a second time.

[0133] Traditionally, message status icons are associated with messagesat the host system 10. A message status icon is a graphical imageindicating the state of the message. States may indicate that: a messageis new, a message has been read, a message has been deleted, a messagehas been forwarded, a message has been replied to, a message has beenfiled or any combination thereof. The message status icon is preferablyin close physical proximity, when viewed by the user as a list ofmessages, to the corresponding message and other corresponding messagedetails (such as subject, sender's name, arrival time, etc.) in thegraphical user interface. By way of example, if a user at the hostsystem forwards a message from the host system to another party, themessage status icon will be altered in appearance to indicate to theuser a forwarding action has been applied to that particular message. Inthis manner and advantageously, the user has a quick visual method ofreviewing a list of messages in a folder and the states of the messages,thereby knowing the actions that have already taken place with respectto those messages at the host system 10.

[0134] In accordance with the present invention and preferably, as aconsequence of receiving at the host system 10 at least one of aplurality of action signals from the mobile 24 (i.e., a read signal, afiled signal, a forward signal or a reply signal), a graphical changewill occur at the host system 10 to a message status icon, which isassociated with the message acted upon at the mobile, to indicate to theuser upon his return and access to the host system that the message hasbeen acted upon (i.e., read, replied to, forwarded and/or filed, etc.)at the mobile. The graphical change will result in a second messagestatus icon distinguishable from the first message status icon and,preferably, the graphical representation of the second message statusicon clearly illustrates the state of the message. In one embodiment ofthe present invention and preferably, as a consequence of receiving afiled signal, the host system application associated with the messagewill move the message to the appropriate folder so that the user uponhis return and access of the host system will see information organizedin the same manner as in the mobile device. In the case of a filedmessage that is also read at the mobile, the corresponding message, atthe host system, is moved and the message status icon associatedtherewith at the host system is altered to indicate the read status.Likewise, in the case where a message is read and forwarded to anotherparty at the mobile, a single second message status icon will preferablyrepresent both statuses (i.e, read and forwarded). Preferably, anysecond message status icon graphical representation resulting from anaction event taking place at the mobile is the same graphicalrepresentation that would occur if the action event had been undertakenat the host system 10 rather than the mobile 24. Alternatively and atthe user's control preferably, any graphical representation is clearlydistinguishable as to be the status change resulting from an actiontaking place at the mobile versus an action taking place at the hostsystem. In the latter embodiment, the user of the redirector systemherein will have quick and reliable information as to where the messagewas read, filed, forwarded, or replied from. Preferably and where aread-receipt is requested by a sender of the message, upon receiving theread signal from the mobile, the redirector or any associated messageapplication such MS Exchange™ or Lotus Notes™ will direct a read-receiptsignal to the read-receipt requester.

[0135] In one embodiment of the present invention, the invention allowsfor a notification of the state of a redirected message at the mobile.It is to be understood that the status signals may be forwarded to thehost system during other times as well, such as during synchronizationor real-time over-the-air-moves as described below.

[0136] In another embodiment of the present invention, there is provideda method of indicating at the host system the state of the message atthe mobile communications device. The steps of this method preferablyinclude: (A) altering the state of a first message at the mobilecommunications device thereby creating an altered state; (B) forwardinga status signal to the host system; and, (C) changing at the host systema first message status icon based on the altered state at the mobilecommunications device. Therefore, according to one aspect of theinvention, the message status icon change indicates an altered state ofthe message at the mobile communication device.

[0137] In another embodiment of the present invention, there is provideda method of indicating at the host system the state of the message atthe mobile communications device. The steps of this method preferablyinclude: (A) redirecting a first message from the host system to themobile communications device, wherein the first message at the hostsystem has a first message status icon; (B) receiving the redirectedfirst message from the host system at the mobile communications device;(C) altering the state of the first message at the mobile communicationsdevice thereby creating an altered state; (D) forwarding a status signalto the host system; and, (E) changing at the host system the firstmessage status icon based on the action taken at the mobilecommunications device.

[0138] In one embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method ofindicating at a first device such as a sender's host system or mobiledevice, via the host system the state of the message at the mobilecommunications device. The steps of this method preferably include: (A)redirecting a first message from the host system to the mobilecommunications device, wherein the first message at the host system hasa first message status icon; (B) receiving the redirected first messagefrom the host system at the mobile communications device; (C) alteringthe state of the first message at the mobile communications devicethereby creating an altered state; (D) forwarding a status signal to thehost system; and, (E) changing at the host system the first messagestatus icon based on the action taken at the mobile communicationsdevice; and (F) forwarding a read-receipt to a read-receipt requester'sdevice.

[0139] Turning now to FIG. 20 there are again two data stores each withfolder hierarchy. Within the host system folder hierarchy 520 there is atruncated view of the same folder presented in FIGS. 18 and 19. On themobile device the folder hierarchy 522 is shown with various actionsbeing performed on it by the user. This example shows the preferred andmost like embodiment of the invention as new data items arrive and areplaced into folders. In this example the user receives a new messagefrom the host system, which is opened and read. This action triggers aspecial command sequence or signal is generated to tell the host thatthis action has taken place 540. This signal may or may not beimmediately sent to the host, in the preferred embodiment this signal ispiggybacked on real data leaving the mobile device 24 whenever possible.The user then decides to move the message to a new folder, whichgenerates another signal 542, which again may or may not be immediatelysent to the host system 10. Finally the user has decided to reply to themessage or to forward the message after they have filed it 544. Thisprocess final step definitely causes a message to leave the mobiledevice accompanied by any other pending command signals indicating themessage has changed it's status. As mentioned already in an advancedimplementation of the invention the movement of the message to thefolder might be piggybacked on another data message that is leaving thesystem by using a time delay on all signals being sent to the hostsystem indicating message status changes. In this example the hostsystem not only moves the message to another folder but also changes anicon associated to the message within that folder. As a result the useris then able to scan the folder and visually check which messages havebeen dealt with during their trip. This combination of message movementbetween folders and status icon alternation allows the host toimmediately reflect the changes made at the mobile device. This createsa mirroring effect between the mobile device data store and the hostsystem data store for all those data items present in both systems.

[0140] As a concrete example FIG. 20 also includes a calendar folderwith a series of actions being performed on them. The first step in thisexample occurs when a new calendar appointment is entered by thesecretary 532 in the host system folders 524. This new appointment issent to the mobile device calendar folder 526 and the user is notifiedof its arrival 546. The new first opens the new appointment whichgenerates a ‘read signal’ 548 that will eventually be sent to the hostsystem. This is important as the user might decide to ignore thecalendar appointment but the secretary needs to know the user has atleast seen the appointment. In this example however the user does decideto accept the meeting request, which generates another signal 550indicating that an acceptance or rejection of the calendar event hastaken place. Several days later the user decides the meeting doesn'twork so they move the calendar event to another day. This movementcauses an ‘item moved’ signal to be sent to the host system 552. Thesedata item state changes and others are all part of how the inventionmanages to keep two folder hierarchies synchronized in real-time acrossa wireless network.

[0141] As presented in FIGS. 18, 19 and 20 the simple action of readinga message on the mobile device causes a change in state for the messageon the mobile device. In the advanced embodiment this change of statewill also be communicated back to the host system and change the statusicon. Further, if requested by the sender and allowed by the user, aread-receipt can be returned to the original sender. Effectively thismeans the mobile device can generate a read-receipt and it can beautomatically pushed to the host system and relayed on to the originalmessage sender.

[0142] Turning now to FIG. 21 there is an overview flow chart of thesteps necessary to allow a message server and a mobile device tomaintain their respective folder hierarchies in synchronization. Thefirst step 600 is to establish a folder baseline or starting pointbetween the two devices. As discussed in the first section this requiresfirst that the folders be assigned Ids and the user selects whichfolders should be mirrored between the two systems. Depending onwireless bandwidth and costs the user has two methods they might chooseto establish the baseline. In the preferred embodiment the wireless linkis used 602 for exchanging the selected folders to be mirrored betweenthe two systems. This step is the same as shown in FIG. 7, step 144where the host system sends each folder one by one to the mobile overthe air. Each folder comes as a ‘folder update’ command and includes afolder Id for later use. Alternatively, the user must perform a bulksynchronization step 604, either via a serial link or high-speed landline like over the Internet using a TCP/IP connection to the host. Thebulk method 604 is described in detail through FIGS. 7, 8, 9 and 10. Inthe bulk method 604 the user might also choose to have all the dataitems within the folders also moved to the mobile device 24. In the overthe air method 602 normally only the folders would be sent across andonly new data messages would be sent to the mobile device 24 to populatethe folders.

[0143] On the folder baseline has been set between the message server500 and the mobile device 24, the normal process of redirecting dataitems between the host system 10 and the mobile device 24 can take place606. This was thoroughly described in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in thefirst section of this patent. Additionally the host must also handleevents coming from the data store 606, which are highlighted in FIG. 25.This covers events to the data store like local changes performed bysecretaries, co-workers or system administrators. Newly arriving dataitems and changes to the data store can trigger the wireless component506, within the message server 500, to send message and commands to themobile device 24. These wireless component 506 messages and commandsmust then be processed 608 by the mobile device 24. These events includenew data items, new folders, folder name changes, folder deletes, movingdata items between folders and other similar synchronization commandsfor folder management, these are described in FIG. 22. As the userreceives new data items they perform their own commands and actions onthe data items. The mobile device 24 must then handle user actions andredirection activities 610, these are described in FIG. 23. Finally thehost must deal with the user's actions on the mobile device 24,including new data items 612. This final step is described in detail inFIG. 24. In summary the goal of the over the air system is to mirroractions on either the host system 10 or the mobile device 24. Once themessage has been moved or changed on either the mobile device 24 or thehost system 10, the redirector preferably attempts to move the identicalmessage to the corresponding folder on the other end to provide a truemirrored (i.e., synchronized) organization of information. The preferredsteps of maintaining an end-to-end synchronized folder hierarchy arereferred hereinafter to as the “over-the-air-move” process.

[0144] Referring now to FIGS. 22a and 22 b these figures highlight thesteps that take place when incoming host information is received at themobile device 24. The types of data items and commands from the wirelesscomponent 506 running within the message server 500 have been brokeninto 3 main groupings. The first grouping is for processing new dataitems 700 arriving into mobile device 24. These are not dealt with indetail as it is outside the scope of this patent. The second grouping isto process command confirmations 702. Command confirmations arrive formany events, but the most important ones related to folder actions thathad been previously sent by the mobile device. Finally the thirdgrouping is for specific folder commands 704 arriving from the hostsystem 10.

[0145] Turning now to step 700 of FIG. 22a there is a test to see if theinformation arriving from the host system 10 is a new data item. If theitem is a new data item it is inserted into the correct folder in thedata store and the user is informed that the item has been added 708.The data item could be an e-mail message, a calendar entry, a contactname, an action item, an expense entry, a database record, a MP3 soundrecording, a video clip or some other form of data that is being managedon the mobile device 24 in a folder hierarchy. Then the user is notifiedof the new items arrival following whatever configured notificationmethods selected by the user. As one skilled in the art can appreciatethere are many steps here but they are not included, as they don'tdirectly affect the real-time synchronization of folder hierarchies.

[0146] If the information from the host is not a new data item theinvention checks for a Folder Command 702. If the information is afolder command 702 then a series of checks are performed to see whatchange the host has performed on a folder. If the information is not afolder command 702 there is a test to see if the item is a commandconfirmation 704. If it is a command confirmation 704 the inventionproceeds to FIG. 22b presented later in this patent 720. If it is not acommand confirmation 704 then further checks could be performed forother host information messages 706.

[0147] If the host has sent a folder command 702 then there are 4 mainchecks to see which folder operation is required. These four checksinclude the creation of a new folder 722, the deletion of a folder 724,the renaming of a folder 726 or a movement of a message between folders728. The first check that is performed is to see if a new folder hasbeen created 722 if the folder command matches this then the software onthe device checks to see if the folder already exists on the device 732.This would be a rare situation but it is possible the user creates afolder on the mobile device 24 at about the same time that someonecreates a similar folder on the host system 10. If this does happen thena negative response is sent back to the host system 734. If the folderdoes not exist then the new folder is created 734 and a positiveconfirmation is sent to the host 742 to confirm the create wassuccessful. If possible this confirmation is delayed for a few minutesin an attempt to piggyback it with real data that might be leaving themobile device 24. The next folder command check is for a delete foldercommand 724. In this situation a test is performed to see if the folderstill exists 732 on the device. Naturally it is possible the user hasalready removed it at the same time as the host is removing it. If thefolder is already gone an negative confirmation is sent to the host 736.Otherwise the folder is removed 738 and a positive confirmation is sentto the host 742. The third test for a folder command checks to see ifthe host has renamed a folder 726. In this case the same test ispreformed to confirm the folder still exists 732. It might have beendeleted or renamed already to something different. If the folder withthe same Id does not exist a negative confirmation is sent back to thehost 736, otherwise the folder is renamed 740 and a positiveconfirmation is returned to the host 742.

[0148] Finally the software checks to see if a move message command 728was requested by the host. If it was not this then some other commandmay have been sent from the host 730 that is outside the description forthis invention. If it was a move message command 728 the software firstchecks to ensure the message Id and Folder Ids still exist 744 on themobile device 24. If either the message is not on the device, or thedestination folder is not present a negative response is sent to thehost 746. Otherwise a tag is created with the new folder Id 748, themessage is updated with the new folder Id 749 and a positiveconfirmation is sent to the host 742.

[0149] If the message from the host system 10 is a command confirmation704 then the command must be processed, as shown in FIG. 22b. The typesof confirmations are directly related to the actions performed by theuser in FIG. 23. That means for every action the user performs onmessages and folders the host will return a confirmation for thataction. The first test that is performed in FIG. 22b is to see if aconfirmation for a message move has been received 710. If it is then afurther check is performed to see if the host did move the messagesuccessfully 712. If the message was moved okay then the message folderId is updated with the new folder Id as accepted by the host 716. If themessage moved failed the software reviews the reasons why it failed 714.If the problem is fixable, for example the destination folder had beenremoved or renamed at the host system 10, the user is allowed to pickanother folder 718 to file the message into. If they do select anotherfolder an additional message is sent to the host issuing another messagemove command 755.

[0150] If the command was not a message move a test is performed to seeif the confirmation is for a folder deletion action 750. If it is afolder delete confirmation a further check is performed to see if it wasa positive confirmation 758. If the delete was successful on the hostthe same action is performed on the indicated folder Id 766. Otherwisethe delete failed for some reason so the reason is determined from thehost message 760. If the problems if fixable the user may be able topick another folder to delete or cancel their delete command 762.Whatever happens the original folder that was marked for deletion isunmarked. The next confirmation command test is to see if the user hadrenamed a folder 752. If this was the command a test is performed to seeif the confirmation is positive 758. If the rename was successful therename action is performed on the folder Id provided 768. If the renamefailed a check is performed to see if the problem is fixable, i.e. canthe user make another selection 760? If so the user is given a chance totry another name change on the same folder 762. If they do try anothername, since the first one may not have been unique, another message issent to the host 764. Finally the final test on the command confirmationis to see if the user added a new folder on the device 754. If this wasnot the command other command tests are performed 756. If it was an addcommand confirmation then the software checks to see if the confirmationis positive 758. If it was positive the new folder is added and the useris given full access to the folder for filing message and data into 770.Otherwise a further check is performed to see why the add request failed760. If the name was in conflict and it can be corrected by the user762, they are allowed to enter a new name and message is sent to thehost 764.

[0151] Turning now to FIG. 23 there is a flow chart illustrating whatthe mobile device 24 does with user actions. On a mobile device therecould be hundreds of functions available for the user, in this patentthe focus will be made on folder and message related activities. Themain actions that will be examined, which match the commandconfirmations from the host, involve moving messages between folders772, reading a message within a folder 774, forwarded or replying to amessage 776, adding a new folder on the device 778, renaming a folder onthe device 780 and deleting a folder on the device 782.

[0152] If the user wants to move a message between folders 772 themessage in question, labeled X, is flagged with the new folder Id ‘Y’786 and a move message x to folder y command or flag is sent to the host798. The flag might be used when piggybacking with a real message, or acommand is sent when no data is being sent to the host. To assist inthis piggybacking the transmission of the request is optionally deletedto wait for data from the user going to the host 810. The delete mayonly be for a few sections but it could save valuable battery andtransmit power. If the user action is not a message move a check isperformed to see if the user is simply reading a message 774. If theuser is reading the message then the message is marked as read on thehandheld and the message is opened for the user 788. As the user isreviewing the message a status update command/flag is generated to sendto the host 800. The transmission of this flag or command is delayed tothe host just in case they reply or forward the message and generatereal traffic going to the host. The user might also be replying orforwarding a message 776 as part of the reading of a new or old message.In this case the message is marked as replied-to or forwarded and theuser attaches their comments 790. The software also generated a flagthat will be sent with the forwarded or replied message 802. The messageand the flag are then transmitted to the host system 810.

[0153] The user might also be performing folder operations on thehandheld device, for example the user might add a folder 778. In thiscase the folder name selected by the user is verified on the device toensure it is unique and a temporary folder Id is generated 792. Oncethis command is given to the host the final folder Id might be changedby the host to ensure it is unique. The software then sends a Add FolderCommand to the host 804, which is piggybacked if possible with otherdata being sent to the host 810. The user might decide to rename afolder on the device 780. In this case the folder name is again verifiedto be unique 794 and a Rename Folder Command is generated 806 fortransmission to the host system 810. Finally the user might decide todelete a folder on the device 782. The first check in this case is toensure the folder is empty before the user deletes it 796. One skilledin the art can appreciate that it would be easy to simply prompt theuser to override this restriction and delete all message in the folderbefore deleting the folder. After ensuring the user is accepted theaction, the folder is marked for deletion, a command is generated forthe host system 808 and is then transmitted to the host 810.

[0154] Turning now to FIG. 24a there is a data flow diagram for how thehost deals with messages from mobile devices. For the sake of thispatent these messages have been broken into three types: data messagesreceived 820, command confirmations 822 and command messages 824. If themessage from the mobile device 24 is a command message 820 then thestatus-changed flag is tested 826. If the status-changed flag is not setthen the message is processed as requested 832, as either a new message,a reply message or a forwarded message. If the status has changed thenthere is an additional check to see if the reply or forward flag hasbeen set 828. If the flag indicates a reply or forward on the message,the message icon representing the message is modified 834 before themessage is acted upon 832. If the reply or forward flag is not set thenthe move, add, rename and delete flag is checked. If one of these flagsis not set then there must be other flags that could be set 838 notdealt with in this patent. If one of these flags is set the data flowproceeds to FIG. 24c to process the flag before returning to process theactual data 832.

[0155] If the message is not a data message then a further test isperformed to see if the message is a command confirmation 822. If it isthen the data flow proceeds to FIG. 24b to process the confirmation.Otherwise if the message was not a command confirmation 822 the softwaretests for a mobile device command message 824. If the mobile device hassent a command the data flow proceeds to FIG. 24c to process thatcommand. Otherwise there is a message from the mobile that is not partof this patent 825.

[0156] Turning now to FIG. 24b the host processes a command confirmation822 first detected in FIG. 24a. These confirmations originated withcommands sent by the host for actions that took place in the data store,see FIGS. 25a and 25 b. The actions include creating a folder 840,deleting a folder 842, renaming a folder 844 and a message move betweenfolders 846. There could be other confirmations 848, but they are notdealt with within this patent disclosure. For call command confirmationslisted above there can either be a positive confirmation 850, or anegative confirmation 852. If it is not one of these two choice then theresponse is in error and will be ignored 854. When the commandconfirmation is a positive one, the operation can be completed. Thismeans a created folder can be made available for all normal folderoperations, a deleted folder can be completely removed from the system,the renamed folder can be completed and the moved message can befulfilled 856. If the confirmation is negative 852 then the result mustbe analyzed 858 to see if corrective action can be taken. For the createif the folder name already exists this can be considered a positiveaction, but the folder Id associated with the folder must be updated sothat the mobile device 24 and the host system 10 both have the samefolder Id for this newly created folder 860. If the delete failed itmight be because the folder didn't exist on the device, i.e. the userhad already deleted it. This error can be ignored and the folder inquestion can be removed 862. If the rename failed due to the name notbeing unique, then we could update the folder Id and take the rename orignore the rename and inform the user/operator that the rename commandhas been ignored 864. Any necessary changes to the folder that must beundone should take place at this time. Finally if the move messagefailed it would be because the message or folder was absent off thedevice 866. If the message was absent from the device, i.e. the user hadalready deleted it, we should move the message anyway. If the folder wasabsent from the device the move should be aborted and the user/operatorshould be informed of the error.

[0157] Turning now to FIG. 24c the host must process a command that wasfirst detected in FIG. 24a. These commands are the result of actionstaken by the user on the mobile device 24. The actions include moving amessage between folders 870, adding a new folder 886, renaming a folder894 and deleting a folder 896. FIG. 24c can also be reached when themobile device sets the status changed flag within a data message 872. Inthis case the flag is treated like a command and control is returned tothe message processing code when the flag is handled.

[0158] If the command from the mobile user is a move message command 870the software checks the message store to ensure the message Id provideis still in the folder indicated 872. If the message is missing then thecommand fails and a negative confirmation 908 is returned to the mobiledevice 24. Otherwise a check is made to ensure that the source folderand the destination folder is still in the message store 874. If one ofthe folders is missing a negative response is sent back to the mobiledevice 876. Otherwise the message is moved from one folder to anotherfolder 878. If the move was successful 880 the folder id in the messageis updated to the new folder Id and a positive confirmation is sent tothe mobile device 882. Otherwise the move failed due to memory or someother serious error and a negative confirmation is sent to the mobiledevice 884.

[0159] If the command from the user was not a move command then thesoftware checks for a folder add command 886. If a folder was added onthe device the host checks to see if the folder exists already on thehost 888. If the folder already exists on the host the software sends anegative confirmation, an error code and the folder Id of the folderthat already has that name 892. If the folder does not exist the folderis created, assigned an Id as provided by the mobile, unless the Id isnot unique in which case a new Id will be assigned 890. After this apositive confirmation is sent to the mobile user 904. If possible theseconfirmations are also piggybacked on real data messages 904. If thecommand was not an add command then a check is made to look for a renamefolder command 894. If the command is a rename there is a check to seeif the new folder name already exists on the host 898. If the sourcefolder does not exist, or if the destination folder does exist 898 therename command will fail and a negative confirmation will be sent to themobile 892. If the source folder does exist, and the destination folderdoes not exist 898 the command is successful and the folder is renamed902. After the renaming the host send a confirmation message to themobile device 904. Finally the command might be a delete folder command896, this is the last processed command in this patent otherwise othercommands are handled in 906. When deleting a folder on the mobile device24 there is a check to ensure the folder exists 898. If the folder doesexist the folder is deleted from the host 900 and a positiveconfirmation is returned to the mobile 904. Otherwise the folder mayalready be deleted and the command fails 892. This type of failure isokay and the mobile can still go ahead and remove the folder.

[0160] Turning now to FIG. 25 there is a data flow diagram showing howthe host deals with messages from the data store indicating changes. Forthis patent these changes are focused on just three main changes thatinclude a new message arriving to the data store 920, a movement ofmessages between folders 930 and an indication that a folder has beenmodified 932. If a new message reaches the data store 920 the softwarereceives a notification of this event. For one skilled in the art thistype of indication is typical for message servers 500, database systemsand certain mail servers like Microsoft's TM Exchange Server. The firsttest is to verify the folder that has received the data item is beingredirected to the mobile user 922. If the user doesn't care about thisfolder the message is ignored 928. After this the software checks toensure the message passes other redirection criteria, like theforwarding rules and trigger flags 924. If it does not pass this testthen the message is again ignored 928. Otherwise the message is sent tothe device with the folder Id where it was first placed 926.

[0161] If the message from the data store was not a new message then thesoftware checks for an indication of a moved message 930. If a messagehas been moved between folders then a check is performed to see if themessage has been previously sent to the mobile device 936. If the devicenever received the message there is no action to be performed 938.Otherwise there is a further check to ensure the folder has been givento the device 940. It is possible that an add folder command has beengiven to the device and the host is waiting for a confirmation. If notthe new folder is sent to the device or the host waits for theconfirmation before sending the message move command 942. If the folderis already on the device the host sends a message move command with themessage Id and two folder Ids to the device 944. The device optionallyneeds the source folder Id and the destination folder Id to execute thecommand the fastest. Otherwise the mobile device could search for themessage in all folders before moving it to the destination folder Id.

[0162] If the message from the data store is not a message moveindication then a check is performed to see if there has been foldermodification activity 932. If it is not folder modification activity 932then it might be other data store messages 934 not dealt with in thispatent. In the situation when a folder has been modified it could be afolder create 946, a folder rename 948 or a folder delete 950. If it isnot one of these three then other processing logic handles folderchanges not part of this patent 952. For all three commands the folderthat has been modified is marked to indicate a change is pending 954.This will be used on the command confirmation to complete the change tothe data store. Finally the host sends a command to the mobile forverification of the action 956.

[0163] Turning now to FIG. 26 this is a block diagram of yet anothermobile communication device 24 in which the instant invention may beimplemented. The mobile communication device 24 is preferably a two-waycommunication device having at least voice and data communicationcapabilities. The device preferably has the capability to communicatewith other computer systems on the Internet. Depending on thefunctionality provided by the device, the device may be referred to as adata messaging device, a two-way pager, a cellular telephone with datamessaging capabilities, a wireless Internet appliance or a datacommunication device (with or without telephony capabilities).

[0164] Where the device 24 is enabled for two-way communications, thedevice will incorporate a communication subsystem 1911, including areceiver 1912, a transmitter 1914, and associated components such as oneor more, preferably embedded or internal, antenna elements 1916 and1918, local oscillators (LOs) 1913, and a processing module such as adigital signal processor (DSP) 1920. As will be apparent to thoseskilled in the field of communications, the particular design of thecommunication subsystem 1911 will be dependent upon the communicationnetwork in which the device is intended to operate. For example, adevice 24 destined for a North American market may include acommunication subsystem 1911 designed to operate within the Mobitex™mobile communication system or DataTAC™ mobile communication system,whereas a device 24 intended for use in Europe may incorporate a GeneralPacket Radio Service (GPRS) communication subsystem 1911.

[0165] Network access requirements will also vary depending upon thetype of network 1919. For example, in the Mobitex and DataTAC networks,mobile devices such as 24 are registered on the network using a uniquepersonal identification number or PIN associated with each device. InGPRS networks however, network access is associated with a subscriber oruser of a device 24. A GPRS device therefore requires a subscriberidentity module (not shown), commonly referred to as a SIM card, inorder to operate on a GPRS network. Without a SIM card, a GPRS devicewill not be fully functional. Local or non-network communicationfunctions (if any) may be operable, but the device 24 will be unable tocarry out any functions involving communications over network 1919. Whenrequired network registration or activation procedures have beencompleted, a device 24 may send and receive communication signals overthe network 1919. Signals received by the antenna 1916 through acommunication network 1919 are input to the receiver 1912, which mayperform such common receiver functions as signal amplification,frequency down conversion, filtering, channel selection and the like,and in the example system shown in FIG. 26, analog to digitalconversion. Analog to digital conversion of a received signal allowsmore complex communication functions such as demodulation and decodingto be performed in the DSP 920. In a similar manner, signals to betransmitted are processed, including modulation and encoding forexample, by the DSP 920 and input to the transmitter 914 for digital toanalog conversion, frequency up conversion, filtering, amplification andtransmission over the communication network 1919 via the antenna 1918.

[0166] The DSP 1920 not only processes communication signals, but alsoprovides for receiver and transmitter control. For example, the gainsapplied to communication signals in the receiver 1912 and transmitter1914 may be adaptively controlled through automatic gain controlalgorithms implemented in the DSP 1920.

[0167] The device 24 preferably includes a microprocessor 1938 whichcontrols the overall operation of the device. Communication functions,including at least data and voice communications, are performed throughthe communication subsystem 1911. The microprocessor 1938 also interactswith further device subsystems such as the display 1922, flash memory1924, random access memory (RAM) 1926, auxiliary input/output (I/O)subsystems 1928, serial port 1930, keyboard 1932, speaker 1934,microphone 1936, a short-range communications subsystem 1940 and anyother device subsystems generally designated as 1942.

[0168] Some of the subsystems shown in FIG. 26 performcommunication-related functions, whereas other subsystems may provide“resident” or on-device functions. Notably, some subsystems, such askeyboard 1932 and display 1922 for example, may be used for bothcommunication-related functions, such as entering a text message fortransmission over a communication network, and device-resident functionssuch as a calculator or task list.

[0169] Operating system software used by the microprocessor 1938 ispreferably stored in a persistent store such as flash memory 1924, whichmay instead be a read only memory (ROM) or similar storage element (notshown). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the operatingsystem, specific device applications, or parts thereof, may betemporarily loaded into a volatile store such as RAM 1926. It iscontemplated that received communication signals may also be stored toRAM 1926.

[0170] The microprocessor 1938, in addition to its operating systemfunctions, preferably enables execution of software applications on thedevice. A predetermined set of applications that control basic deviceoperations, including at least data and voice communication applicationsfor example, will normally be installed on the device 24 duringmanufacture. A preferred application that may be loaded onto the devicemay be a personal information manager (PIM) application having theability to organize and manage data items relating to the device usersuch as, but not limited to e-mail, calendar events, voice mails,appointments, and task items. Naturally, one or more memory stores wouldbe available on the device to facilitate storage of PIM data items onthe device. Such PIM application would preferably have the ability tosend and receive data items, via the wireless network. In a preferredembodiment, the PIM data items are seamlessly integrated, synchronizedand updated, via the wireless network, with the device user'scorresponding data items stored or associated with a host computersystem. Further applications may also be loaded onto the device 24through the network 1919, an auxiliary subsystem 1928, serial port 1930,short-range communications subsystem 1940 or any other suitablesubsystem 1942, and installed by a user in the RAM 1926 or preferably anon-volatile store (not shown) for execution by the microprocessor 1938.Such flexibility in application installation increases the functionalityof the device and may provide enhanced on-device functions,communication-related functions, or both. For example, securecommunication applications may enable electronic commerce functions andother such financial transactions to be performed using the device 24.

[0171] In a data communication mode, a received signal such as a textmessage or web page download will be processed by the communicationsubsystem 1911 and input to the microprocessor 1938, which willpreferably further process the received signal for output to the display1922, or alternatively to an auxiliary I/O device 1928. A user of device24 may also compose data items such as email messages for example, usingthe keyboard 1932, which is preferably a complete alphanumeric keyboardor telephone-type keypad, in conjunction with the display 1922 andpossibly an auxiliary I/O device 1928. Such composed items may then betransmitted over a communication network through the communicationsubsystem 1911.

[0172] For voice communications, overall operation of the device 24 issubstantially similar, except that received signals would preferably beoutput to a speaker 1934 and signals for transmission would be generatedby a microphone 1936. Alternative voice or audio I/O subsystems such asa voice message recording subsystem may also be implemented on thedevice 24. Although voice or audio signal output is preferablyaccomplished primarily through the speaker 1934, the display 1922 mayalso be used to provide an indication of the identity of a callingparty, the duration of a voice call, or other voice call relatedinformation for example.

[0173] The serial port 1930 in FIG. 2 would normally be implemented in apersonal digital assistant (PDA)-type communication device for whichsynchronization with a user's desktop computer (not shown) may bedesirable, but is an optional device component. Such a port 1930 wouldenable a user to set preferences through an external device or softwareapplication and would extend the capabilities of the device by providingfor information or software downloads to the device 24 other thanthrough a wireless communication network. The alternate download pathmay for example be used to load an encryption key onto the devicethrough a direct and thus reliable and trusted connection to therebyenable secure device communication.

[0174] A short-range communications subsystem 1940 is a further optionalcomponent which may provide for communication between the device 1924and different systems or devices, which need not necessarily be similardevices. For example, the subsystem 1940 may include an infrared deviceand associated circuits and components or a Bluetooth™ communicationmodule to provide for communication with similarly-enabled systems anddevices.

[0175] Having described in detail the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, including the preferred methods of operation, it isto be understood that this operation could be carried out with differentelements and steps. This preferred embodiment is presented only by wayof example and is not meant to limit the scope of the present inventionwhich is defined by the following claims.

What is claimed:
 1. A method of synchronizing messages between a firstsystem and a second system, comprising the steps of: retrieving a firstfolder hierarchy from the first system, retrieving a second folderhierarchy from the second system; synchronizing the second folderhierarchy to the first folder hierarchy; retrieving a first plurality ofmessages from the first system, the first plurality of messages beingstored in folders within the first folder hierarchy; retrieving a secondplurality of messages from the second system, the second plurality ofmessages being stored in folders within the second folder hierarchy;comparing the first plurality of messages to the second plurality ofmessages to identify common messages stored in both the first and secondfolder hierarchies; determining whether any of the common messages arestored in different folders in the first and second folder hierarchies;and if a common message is located in different folders of the first andsecond folder hierarchies, then synchronizing the messages by moving thecommon message to a new folder within the first folder hierarchy or bymoving the common message to a new folder within the second folderhierarchy.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step ofinitiating communication between the first and second systems byelectrically coupling the first system to the second system.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising the step of initiatingcommunicating between the first and second systems by opening aconnecting via a wireless data communication network.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first system is a host system and the second systemis a mobile data communication device.
 5. The method of claim 4, furthercomprising the step of providing a wireless data communication networkfor enabling communications between the host system and the mobile datacommunication device.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein thesynchronizing the second folder hierarchy to the first folder hierarchystep further includes the steps of: associating a unique folder ID witheach folder in the first and second folder hierarchies; generating afolder list including the folder IDs of the folders in the first folderhierarchy; providing the folder list to the second system; and updatingthe second folder hierarchy to match the first folder hierarchy usingthe information contained in the folder list.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the comparing step further includes the steps of: associating aunique message ID with each message stored in the first and secondsystems; comparing the message IDs of the messages retrieved from thefirst system with the message IDs of the messages retrieved from thesecond system in order to determine if any common messages are stored onthe first and second systems.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising the steps of: receiving a new message at the first system;associating a unique message ID with the new message; and transmittingthe new message to the second system.
 9. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising the steps of: receiving the new message at the second system;and storing the new message in a first folder within the second folderhierarchy at the second system.
 10. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising the steps of: storing the new message into a first folderwithin the first folder hierarchy at the first system, wherein the firstfolder within the first folder hierarchy is associated with the firstfolder within the second folder hierarchy.
 11. The method of claim 10,wherein the first folders are inbox folders.
 12. The method of claim 11,further comprising the steps of: moving the new message to a secondfolder within the second folder hierarchy; associating a folder ID ofthe second folder with the new message; and setting a move flag withinthe new message to indicate that the new message has been moved to thesecond folder.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining stepfurther includes the steps of: associating a folder ID with each messagestored in the first and second folder hierarchies, wherein the folder IDidentifies the folder location of each message within the respectivefolder hierarchy, and wherein associated folders in the first and secondhierarchies are identified by the same folder ID; and comparing thefolder IDs of any common messages to determine whether the commonmessages are stored in the same folders within the first and secondfolder hierarchies.
 14. A method of synchronizing messages stored in afolder hierarchy at a host system and a corresponding folder hierarchyat a mobile data communication device, comprising the steps of:receiving a message at the host system; storing the message in a firstfolder of the folder hierarchy at the host system; transmitting themessage to the mobile data communication device; storing the message ina first folder of the folder hierarchy at the mobile data communicationdevice; moving the message from the first folder to a second folder atthe mobile data communication device; coupling the mobile datacommunication device to the host system; detecting that the message hasbeen moved to the second folder at the mobile data communication device;and in response to the detection step, moving the message from the firstfolder at the host system to a second folder of the folder hierarchy atthe host system that corresponds to the second folder of the folderhierarchy at the mobile data communication device.
 15. A method ofsynchronizing messages stored in a folder hierarchy at a host system anda corresponding folder hierarchy at a mobile data communication device,comprising the steps of: receiving a message at the host system; storingthe message in a first folder of the folder hierarchy at the hostsystem; transmitting the message to the mobile data communicationdevice; storing the message in a first folder of the folder hierarchy atthe mobile data communication device; moving the message from the firstfolder to a second folder at the mobile data communication device;transmitting a move message from the mobile data communication device tothe host system indicating that the message has been moved to the secondfolder at the mobile data communication device; and receiving the movemessage at the host system and moving the message stored in the firstfolder at the host system to a second folder at the host system thatcorresponds to the second folder at the mobile data communicationdevice.
 16. A method of synchronizing a first device to a second device,comprising the steps of: providing a first folder hierarchy at the firstdevice; providing a second folder hierarchy at the second device;synchronizing the second folder hierarchy to the first folder hierarchy;retrieving a first plurality of messages stored within the first folderhierarchy and retrieving a second plurality of messages stored withinthe second folder hierarchy, wherein at least one of the first pluralityof messages and at least one of the second plurality of messages arecommon messages; determining whether the common messages are stored insimilar folders within the first and second folder hierarchies; and ifthe common messages are not stored in similar folders, thensynchronizing the common messages so that they are stored in similarfolders within the first and second folder hierarchies.
 17. A method ofsynchronizing a first device to a second device, comprising the stepsof: providing a first folder hierarchy at the first device; providing asecond folder hierarchy at the second device; retrieving a firstplurality of messages stored within the first folder hierarchy andretrieving a second plurality of messages stored within the secondfolder hierarchy; determining whether the first device executed anoperation on a message stored in the first folder hierarchy, and if so,then executing the same operation on a corresponding message stored inthe second folder hierarchy at the second device.
 18. A method formirroring a data store within a first device to a data store within asecond device, comprising the steps of: providing a first folderhierarchy within the data store of a first device; providing a secondfolder hierarchy within the data store of a second device; redirecting aplurality of data items from the first system each with associatedfolder hierarchy information; filing the redirected data items from thefirst system within the data store of the second system following thehierarchy information provided; returning command signals back to thefirst system from the second system when data items are moved from theoriginal filed folder hierarchy; and moving the data items within thefirst folder hierarchy as indicated by the command signals so they matchthe updated folder of those same data items on the second system in suchas way that first and second system mirror each others format and filingstructure.
 19. A method of real-time synchronization between folderhierarchies, comprising the steps of: detecting and transmitting everyfolder change from a host system to a mobile device, detecting andtransmitting every folder change from a mobile system to a host system,synchronizing every folder change on the host and mobile systems in sucha way as to maximize the mirroring of the two systems data storage areasfor those parts of the data store that are shared.
 20. A method ofredirecting data between a first device and a second device, comprisingthe steps of: providing a first storage hierarchy at the first device;providing a second storage hierarchy at the second device; redirecting aplurality of data items from the first device to the second device, eachdata item including a location indicator within the first storagehierarchy; storing the redirected data items in corresponding locationswithin the second storage hierarchy using the location indicators. 21.The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of synchronizing thesecond folder hierarchy to the first folder hierarchy.
 22. A system forsynchronizing messages between a first device and a second device,comprising: a pair of matching folders, one of the pair of matchingfolders being located on the first device, the other of the pair ofmatching folders being located on the second device; a pair of matchingmessages, one of the pair of matching messages being located on thefirst device, the other of the pair of matching messages being locatedon the second device; and means for moving the pair of messages suchthat if one of the pair of matching messages is moved to one of the pairof matching folders, the other matching message is moved to the othermatching folder.
 23. The system of claim 22, wherein the first device isa host system and the second device is a mobile data communicationsdevice.
 24. The system of claim 22, wherein each pair of matchingmessages has a unique message ID such that the means for movingcomprises means for matching the unique message IDs of the message onthe first device to the message on the second device by matching theunique message IDs.
 25. A method of indicating at a host system a stateof a message at a mobile communications device, the method comprising ofthe following steps: (A) altering the state of a first message at themobile communications device thereby creating an altered state; (B)forwarding a status signal to the host system; and, (C) changing at thehost system a first message status icon based on the altered state atthe mobile communications device.
 26. The method of claim 25, whereinstep (A) is the act of forwarding the first message from the mobilecommunication device.
 27. The method of claim 25, wherein step (A) isthe act of replying to the first message from the mobile communicationdevice.
 28. The method of claim 25, wherein step (A) is the act ofreading the first message at the mobile communications device.
 29. Themethod of claim 26, wherein step (C) results in the first message statusicon representing a graphical representation of at least the forwardedstate.
 30. The method of claim 26, wherein step (C) results in the firstmessage status icon representing a graphical representation of at leastthe replied state.
 31. The method of claim 26, wherein step (C) resultsin the first message status icon representing a graphical representationof at least the read state.
 32. The method of claim 26, wherein step (C)results in the first message status icon icon representing a graphicalrepresentation that at least the mobile device has acted upon themessage in any way.
 33. The method of claim 25, wherein the mobilecommunications device is a PDA.
 34. The method of claim 25, wherein themobile communications device is a pager.
 36. The method of claim 25,wherein the mobile communications device is a two-way pager.
 37. Themethod of claim 25, wherein the mobile communications device is acellular telephone.
 38. The method of claim 25, wherein the mobilecommunications device is an Internet appliance.
 39. A method ofindicating at the host system the state of the message at the mobilecommunications device comprising of the following steps: (A) redirectinga first message from the host system to the mobile communicationsdevice, wherein the first message at the host system has a first messagestatus icon; (B) receiving the redirected first message from the hostsystem at the mobile communications device; (C) altering the state ofthe first message at the mobile communications device thereby creatingan altered state; (D) forwarding a status signal to the host system;and, (E) changing at the host system the first message status icon basedon the action taken at the mobile communications device.
 40. The methodof claim 39, wherein step (A) is the act of forwarding the first messagefrom the mobile communication device.
 41. The method of claim 39,wherein step (A) is the act of replying to the first message from themobile communication device.
 42. The method of claim 39, wherein step(A) is the act of reading the first message at the mobile communicationsdevice.
 43. The method of claim 40, wherein step (C) results in thefirst message status icon representing a graphical representation of atleast the forwarded state.
 44. The method of claim 40 wherein step (C)results in the first message status icon representing a graphicalrepresentation of at least the replied state.
 45. The method of claim41, wherein step (C) results in the first message status iconrepresenting a graphical representation of at least the read state. 46.The method of claim 41, wherein step (C) results in the first messagestatus icon icon representing a graphical representation that at leastthe mobile device has acted upon the message in any way.
 47. The methodof claim 39, wherein the mobile communications device is a PDA.
 48. Themethod of claim 39, wherein the mobile communication device is a pager.49. The method of claim 39, wherein the mobile communication device is atwo-way pager.
 50. The method of claim 39, wherein the mobilecommunication device is a cellular telephone.
 51. The method of claim39, wherein the mobile communication device is an Internet appliance 52.The method of claim 39, further comprising the steps of: (F) forwardinga read-receipt to a read-receipt requester's device.
 53. The method ofclaim 51, wherein the requester's device is a mobile communicationdevice.
 54. The method of claim 51, wherein the requester's device is apersonal computer.
 55. The method of claim 51, wherein the requester'sdevice is a two-way pager.
 56. The method of claim 51, wherein therequester's device is a Internet appliance.